Airports Council International (ACI) has joined with the International Air Transport Association (IATA) to call for all remaining Covid-19 restrictions applying to intra-EU and Schengen area travel to be dropped.
This includes all testing requirements, the need to present proof of vaccination or complete a passenger locator form.
The organisations also want to see mask-wearing scrapped for travel within or between states where it is no longer required in other indoor environments.
Covid-19, and specifically the Omicron variant, is now pervasive throughout all of Europe, and population immunity is at such levels that the “risk of hospitalisation or death has dramatically reduced,” especially for vaccinated people, IATA argued.
States are adopting surveillance strategies to ensure public health, in the same way as they do for other coronaviruses and infectious diseases.
Many European states have lifted domestic Covid-19 restrictions, such as the need to provide health credentials to enter social events, or the requirement to wear masks in public spaces.
Contact tracing efforts are also being stood down, rendering locator forms for international travel redundant.
As European countries open up and remove restrictions, it is only logical to remove similar restrictions from air transport.
IATA and ACI Europe today presented further evidence in support of aligning air transport rules with domestic regulations.
New research by OXERA/Edge Health shows that even if a new variant is discovered and travel restrictions introduced immediately, this only delays the peak of infections by a maximum of only four days. Airports Council International (ACI) has joined with the International Air Transport Association (IATA) to call for all remaining Covid-19 restrictions applying to intra-EU and Schengen area travel to be dropped.
This includes all testing requirements, the need to present proof of vaccination or complete a passenger locator form.
The organisations also want to see mask-wearing scrapped for travel within or between states where it is no longer required in other indoor environments.
Covid-19, and specifically the Omicron variant, is now pervasive throughout all of Europe, and population immunity is at such levels that the “risk of hospitalisation or death has dramatically reduced,” especially for vaccinated people, IATA argued.
States are adopting surveillance strategies to ensure public health, in the same way as they do for other coronaviruses and infectious diseases.
Many European states have lifted domestic Covid-19 restrictions, such as the need to provide health credentials to enter social events, or the requirement to wear masks in public spaces.
Contact tracing efforts are also being stood down, rendering locator forms for international travel redundant.
As European countries open up and remove restrictions, it is only logical to remove similar restrictions from air transport.
IATA and ACI Europe today presented further evidence in support of aligning air transport rules with domestic regulations.
New research by OXERA/Edge Health shows that even if a new variant is discovered and travel restrictions introduced immediately, this only delays the peak of infections by a maximum of only four days.