Airlines request Biden administration to settle Covid testing before international flights
Key takeaways:
- Airlines and other travel-industry groups make the Biden administration settle Covid testing conditions for inbound international air travelers.
- The Trump administration mandated the testing needs days before Biden took office.
Travelers request Biden to cancel testing requirements:
Airlines and other travel-industry groups requested the Biden administration on Wednesday to decline Covid test conditions for vaccinated passengers before U.S.-bound flights, a request to revitalize the slow healing in international travel.
“Doing so is explained by the pervasiveness of COVID cases in all 50 states, improved immunity, and higher vaccination rates as well as new treatments,” stated an industry note to White House coronavirus response coordinator Jeffrey Zients.
“Removing the need will strongly back the recovery of travel and aviation in the United States and globally without rising the spread of COVID-19 and its variants.”
The letter was signed by Airlines for America, a rally crowd that represents Delta, American, United, Southwest, and others, along with almost two-dozen other industry organizations representing airlines, hotels, airports, and aircraft manufacturers.
The Trump government, in January 2021, set a policy directing inbound air travelers, including U.S. residents, to show evidence of a negative Covid test taken within three days of departure.
In December, the Biden administration shrank laws to direct travelers to show tests taken within one day of departure after omicron cases flooded. That transformation came a month after the U.S. concluded a broad travel prohibition on tourists from Europe, China, Brazil, India, and the U.K.
However, international travel need persists in sagging domestic peace, which allowed airlines to recover from record losses in 2020.
The groups differed in their letter that testing needs for vaccinated individuals is too challenging and prevents travel. The U.K., beginning Feb. 11, will decrease its Covid testing need for vaccinated comings.
International inbound air travel won’t probably recover to pre-pandemic levels till 2024, Roger Dow, president, and CEO of the U.S. Travel Association, an industry group, stated during a call with journalists before Wednesday.
That is “leaving a huge amount of ground to make up."