As of right now, everyone traveling to the UK must complete a passenger locator form before they arrive. Travelers who are not fully vaccinated have to take a Covid test before departure, fill in the form, and book and pay for a PCR test after arriving. However, it has been confirmed that these rules will end at 4:00 AM on Friday.
Passengers who are not fully vaccinated will no longer have to take Covid tests before and after traveling to the UK. The passenger locator form will no longer be necessary either.
British Airways even revealed that it will drop its mandatory face mask policy on all eligible flights from Wednesday, 16th March, following a thorough review of the policy. The airline’s apparent mask mandate changed their minds quickly after both Jet2 and TUI Airways announced they were removing masking rules.
Face masks will, however, still be mandatory on routes where the destination country requires them to be worn by law. The biggest country where this is the case in the United States where the federal face mask mandate has been extended until April 18 at the earliest.
Other destinations may also include Italy where passengers must wear a protective FFP2 (KN95) mask rather than a cloth face covering. Like Jet2 and TUI, passengers traveling with BA may also have to wear a mask when boarding or landing in certain countries where face mask rules are still in existence.
Frankfurt International Airport (FRA) has warned of “major disruptions and flight cancellations” on Tuesday after airport security staff announced they would stage a 24-hour “warning strike” in protest at stalled negotiations over pay and conditions.
In a statement, Frankfurt airport said it would be forced to close all of its passenger security screening points for passengers starting their journey in Frankfurt on Tuesday. The airport hopes to keep transfer passenger screening lanes open but warned passengers of the potential for delays and disruption.