Covid testing and health certificates must not be allowed to become norms for international travel, airlines say.
Willie Walsh, the new director general of the International Air Transport Association (Iata), said emergency measures to manage the crisis and facilitate travel risked becoming permanent unless airlines and consumers challenged them.
He criticised the extent and costs of testing regimes for travel, as new figures showed international air passenger numbers declined to just 11% of pre-pandemic levels in February.
The UK government requires three tests and a quarantine period for inbound travellers, and this week indicated that some tests would remain even for the safest, “green-light” countries once international leisure is permitted again, potentially from 17 May.
Walsh cited the ban on liquids brought in after the discovery of a planned terror attack on a transatlantic airliners 15 years ago, and said: “We see in our industry regulations being introduced for temporary problems that remain in place far too long, well beyond where they are necessary. When we saw the liquids ban introduced – for a credible security reason – it’s still in place today, despite the fact that there is technology available to airports enabling you to leave liquids in bags.”
He said he was confident such requirements would not be needed in the future, with solutions that mitigated the risks. “It is important that we as consumers don’t expect this to be a permanent measure for the industry and we need to challenge that.”