Certain airlines have dropped all mask requirements

It seems as though each day that passes we are getting nearer and nearer to returning to a world where travel isn't a horrible authoritarian process. I was one of the people that traveled anyway even when they were strongly advising no one to do so. Even though we were allowed to travel to certain places, it was still a very silly and unpleasant experience and a lot of it didn't make any sense.

We were forced to stay a certain distance apart from one another in the airport, which is not easy to pull off in an environment as crowded as an airport. The strangest and seemingly most pointless thing was when they forced us to stay 2 meters apart at the gates, then on the jetway, only to cram us all into a packed airplane in the end. Masks of course were forced upon you and there are even stories of people being forced off of planes for not wearing the mask "properly" and even a story of a family being removed because their infant didn't have a mask on. A lot of it seemed like madness to me but I complied because we had no choice.

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_{don't get near each other... well not until the part where we shove you all into a metal tube where you are mere inches from each other}

It was announced a few days ago that several airlines, some of which are in alliances, that they are completely dropping all mask requirements on all flights. Of course if you want to wear a mask, you are certainly entitled to do so and if Covid is something that still concerns you I encourage you to do so but for those of us that felt the process was stupid, like I do, there are some choices of airlines where mask usage is completely optional for passengers.

They are

• British Airways
• Virgin Atlantic
• KLM
• TUI
• Jet 2
• Transavia
• Scandinavian Airlines
• Flyr
• Widerøe

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Unfortunately, I don't have an opportunity to fly with these airlines because I don't spend much time in the part of the world that they operate in and I also haven't even ever heard of several of them, but it is nice to see that a movement of this sort is happening. I've always thought that it was really dumb to force people to wear their masks but then everyone gets served meals at the same time at which point they all have their masks off at the same time. Then of course there is the fact that the cloth masks that most people use have been shown to be largely ineffective at stopping the spread of anything to begin with.

Again, if someone out there believes in the effectiveness of masks and wants to wear one, no one is going to prevent you from doing so except for maybe the part where you need to prove your identity by showing your face at Immigration or something. Also, certain destinations that these airlines serve, such as the United States, will overrule these rules, at least until you take off.

Now we just need more countries to lift entry requirements but the good news is in that department that there are a lot of countries that are talking about exactly that. There are very few countries in the world that are completely shut still and more and more are dropping all entry requirements presumably to drum up some much-needed tourism.

Perhaps the world will soon return to a normal state and we can get back out there and do some inexpensive travel free of restrictions. That's the world I want to live in.