TAP Air Portugal CEO says airline passengers will wear masks forever

The CEO of TAP Air Portugal says the requirement that airline passengers wear masks may be with us forever. “We have put into place so many additional protocols,” said Christine Ourmières-Widener, who was named CEO in June. “I am absolutely convinced they will stay forever.” Ourmières-Widener said mask wearing during flights, increased aircraft cleaning and checks of vaccine certificates could all remain in place. “We are still very cautious,” she said in an interview Tuesday as she visited TAP’s Newark office. “The pandemic is about to be gone. The recovery will take time.” The IATA recently urged the US government to remove a pre-departure testing requirement for fully vaccinated travelers flying to the US. Ourmières-Widener said she backs IATA. “What we would like to see is global protocols and more consistent way to see what conditions are,” she said, citing the difficulty in flying from one market to another. She added that a TAP passenger from Newark to Lisbon recently had to cancel his flight because his test results were no longer valid.<br/>