In the Official Journal of the Republic of Poland, item 964, a Regulation of the Council of Ministers of May 29, 2020 on the establishment of certain restrictions, orders and bans in connection with the state of epidemic has been published. According to the Regulation, activities related to passenger air transport are acceptable under the following conditions:
- hand disinfectants are provided on board;
- cleaning of the aircraft surfaces with which the passenger has contact - after each stage of flight with passengers;
- the aircraft is disinfected:
- once a day in the event of flight operations with passengers,
- after each flight with a sick person or a person suspected of an infectious disease,
- after each air operation performed from an airport defined in the Annex to the Safety Directive issued by EASA on the basis of article 76 par. 6 letter b of a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council (EU) 2018/1139;
- the air crew delivers to passengers the passenger locator forms, for health purposes, and collects from the passengers the filled in forms – if the passenger crosses the state border, to go to their place of residence or stay in the territory of the Republic of Poland.
Moreover, the Regulation defines how to handle the filled in Passenger Locator Forms and the rules for passenger transport:
- the number of passengers on board of aircraft cannot exceed a half of the maximum number of seats provided for in the technical documentation of the aircraft;
- a passenger:
- whose body temperature is equal to or exceeds 38°C,
- who did not submit the health declaration during the check-in, on a form made available by the air carrier,
- who does not comply with the obligation to cover the mouth and the nose with a mask;
shall not be admitted to the aircraft.
- it is obligatory to cover the mouth and nose with a mask on board of aircraft - the obligation does not apply to the air crew in the cockpit.
Simultaneously, one should remember that according to the Regulation of the Council of Ministers of May 21, 2020 on air transport ban, international flights are banned till June 6, 2020.
Civil aircraft performing international flights with passengers are banned from landing on airports entered into the register of civil airports and on airstrips on the list of the Republic of Poland’s airstrips, except for:
- cargo flights,
- flights without cargo and passengers,
- flights with the HOSP, HUM, STATE, HEAD status and other flights performed in order to save people’s lives or health (e.g. with the ‘RESCUE’ parole),
- flights performed in order to protect public order (e.g. with the ‘GUARD’ parole),
- flights to the Republic of Poland performed by aircraft chartered at the order of tour operators or an entity acting at their order before march 15, 2020,
- flights at order of the Prime Minister, a natural or legal person, performed by aircraft with up to 15 passenger seats.
The ban does not cover charter flights performed by foreign air carriers at the order of foreign states in order to repatriate their citizens or by aircraft in distress.