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Manila Bulletin devider Business devider Airports & Airlines: scrap Covid restrictions in Europe

Airports & Airlines: scrap Covid restrictions in Europe

Published Mar 11, 2022 10:23 am

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Today, March 11, exactly two years since the World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID19 a global pandemic, airports and airlines called for the scrapping of all COVID19 restrictions in intra-European Union and Schengen area travel.

Both ACI EUROPE (Airports Council International) and the International Air Transport Association (IATA) lobby to remove all remaining COVID restrictions, including all testing requirements, the need to present proof of vaccination, or complete a Passenger Locator Form (PLF), as well as the wearing of masks, when traveling within the two regions.

The EU countries include Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Republic of Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain and Sweden.

Schengen covers Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.

COVID-19, specifically the Omicron variant, is now pervasive throughout all of Europe, the organizations maintained.

Population immunity is at such levels that the risk of hospitalization or death has dramatically reduced, especially for vaccinated people.

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 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 PLFs 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 presented further evidence in support of aligning air transport rules with domestic regulations.

New research by OXERA/Edge Health published today 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.

In reality, by the time that a new variant emerges, is identified, and restrictions are put in place, the variant is likely already circulating in communities around the world.

In a scenario where restrictions are delayed by a week from identification, the peak in infections per 100,000 people is only delayed by a maximum of two days.

These negligible health benefits are therefore outweighed by the significant social and economic damage caused by the negative impact on air travel.

"Europe’s population immunity is strong and COVID-19 is essentially now an endemic disease," argued Rafael Schvartzman, IATA’s Regional Vice President for Europe.

"The time has come to focus their COVID efforts on surveillance and remove remaining intra-EU restrictions. This will free people to travel, and support jobs returning to the European air transport and travel sectors,” he underscored.

“The independent research and modelling published today shows that governments can lift restrictions with confidence – both for today and for any future variants of concern," says Olivier Jankovec, Director General, ACI EUROPE.

"Travel restrictions have proven to be a blunt instrument with little to no impact on virus transmission. Removing all COVID-19 restrictions will finally fully restore the freedom to travel."

"That will be a much-needed boost for the whole travel and tourism sectors which has been forced to shed hundreds of thousands of jobs during the pandemic,” Jankovec underscored.

In the light of the new research and increasing signs that the severity of COVID-19 is becoming closer to that of seasonal influenza, ACI EUROPE and IATA wrote jointly to Ministers of Transport and Health throughout EU member states, requesting to remove all health-related travel and border restrictions ahead of the summer season, at least on intra- European Economic Area (EEA) flights.

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SCRAPPING COVID RESTRICTIONS FOR AIR TRAVEL ACI EUROPE IATA
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