The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has urged
governments to act quickly to enable airlines to meet the demands of consumers
and revive the global travel industry.
States attending the International Civil Aviation
Organisation (ICAO) High Level Conference on Covid-19 (HLCC) committed to 14
measures designed to stimulate air travel. IATA has highlighted two areas in
which urgent action by governments is needed: the implementation and
recognition of testing, vaccination and recovery certification and multilayer risk
management strategies, as well as the removal of testing and quarantine
requirements for fully vaccinated travellers and exemptions for those who are
not vaccinated.
According to IATA's director general Willie Walsh,
international air travel remains 70 per cent down on pre-crisis levels even as
countries around the world have started to lift restrictions.
Walsh said: “The ICAO HLCC commitments show that governments
understand what is needed to restart global connectivity. The task now is
implementation. Some governments have already started. The imminent opening of
the US market to vaccinated travellers will be a big step forward. But we
cannot let the output of this meeting remain as words on paper.
“The airline industry, 88 million livelihoods, 3.5 per cent
of global GDP and billions of travellers are counting on governments to deliver
on the risk-managed reopening of international travel to which they have
committed.”
Walsh continued: “After a year and a half of experience with
Covid-19 we have the knowledge, data and experience to safely facilitate
international travel without border restrictions. All the evidence and
recommendations point towards restoring the freedom to travel for those vaccinated.
And it is also clear that we have the capability to manage those without access
to vaccination using testing.”
Earlier this month IATA called for a globally unified approach to Covid-19 entry requirements, citing "wildly inconsistent" and confusing rules around the world.
Pushing for the adoption of digital tools to verify health
credentials, such as IATA’s Travel Pass, Walsh added: “Airlines cannot afford a
restart that is compromised by paper-based processes for checking travel health
credentials. Testing is complete and several airlines are already starting
implementation of IATA Travel Pass across their networks. It’s also a
ready-made solution for governments to be prepared to efficiently manage their documentation
processes as demand ramps up.”