Aircraft can fill middle seat as of June 1
"It is now important to bring national rules into line with European rules on civil aviation transport," says the cabinet of the minister for infrastructure and housing.
The Portuguese government has announced that aircraft will no longer have a two-thirds reduced passenger capacity as of June 1 and that the use of a “community mask is mandatory” on aircraft.
In a statement, the cabinet of the minister of infrastructure and housing pointed out that “it is now important to bring national rules into line with European rules on civil aviation transport, where a uniform European and international strategy is key to the recovery of the sector and passenger confidence.”
“In international terms, recommendations have been studied and proposed on a set of health measures to combat the SARS-CoV-2 epidemic in the air transport sector, and the limitation of aircraft capacity is not part of these recommendations,” the government said, adding that “it is not justified, therefore, for Portugal to maintain them, damaging the companies subject to its jurisdiction.
The government said that “the ongoing national assessment on the use of public transport during the health crisis caused by the Covid-19 pandemic had led the government, in the first instance, to decree a reduction in passenger capacity in aircraft” to two thirds.
