The World Travel & Tourism
Council (WTTC) has called on the US government to speed up approval of the UK’s
AstraZeneca vaccine to help restore transatlantic travel.
The US Centres for Disease Control (CDC) this week formally
approved the Pfizer vaccine, however it still does not currently recognise
AstraZeneca as an approved Covid-19 vaccine and the process could take many
months.
The organisation believes that the
restart of international travel could be seriously delayed without worldwide
reciprocal recognition of all approved Covid-19 vaccines and that vaccine
inequality could become an increasing barrier to international mobility and
continue to inflict damage upon economies around the world.
Flights
between the UK and US are 73 per cent lower in the last week of August than
they were in the same month in 2019, according to travel and data analytics
expert Cirium.
Virginia Messina, WTTC senior vice
president, said: “It’s crucial the US authorities step forward to formally
approve the AstraZeneca vaccine as a matter of urgency to enable cross-border
mobility and the return of transatlantic travel between the UK and US.
“Unless
they give it the green light then the US will effectively remain closed to the
vast majority of UK visitors and the many millions around the world who are
double-jabbed with the AstraZeneca vaccine.”
“Neither the US nor the UK
economy can afford this ‘vaccine vacuum’ to continue a day longer, and every
day which passes, and transatlantic travel remains off limits, it leaves the travel
and tourism sector sinking deeper into the red.”
Others in the US have already
recognised the AstraZeneca jab. This week the City of New York included it on its
list of vaccines which would be accepted as proof of inoculation to enter many
indoor venues.