The US government is expected to announce that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) will lift its requirement for travelers to test negative for COVID-19 before entering the country. What does this mean for the airline industry? Let’s investigate further.
Removing a travel restriction
The CDC could announce on Friday the removal of its requirement for travelers to deliver a negative COVID-19 test before boarding an international flight bound to the United States. This measure has been in place since January 2021.
If announced, the move will go into effect at midnight on Sunday, according to CNN, which first reported the story.
The CDC will reassess its decision in 90 days, and if officials believe there’s a concerning new variant, they would reinstate it.
Additional to the negative COVID-19 test before boarding, passengers entering or transiting through the US must have a COVID-19 vaccination certificate. This certificate must show that they were fully vaccinated at least 15 days before arrival. The vaccines accepted are AstraZeneca, Covaxin, Covishield, Covovax, Janssen, Moderna, Nuvaxovid, Pfizer-BioNTech, Sinopharm, and Sinovac.
The airline industry’s lobbying efforts
Recently US airlines stepped up their efforts to get the Biden administration to end the CCOVID-19 pre-departure testing requirements. Last Friday, American Airlines CEO Robert Isom said the testing requirements were “nonsensical” and were heavily impacting leisure and business travel.
According to Airlines for America, international US travel remains down about 14% from 2019 levels, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. Isom added,
“We’re really frustrated, and this is something that is damaging not only US travel, but it just doesn’t make sense.”
According to the American Airlines executive, 75% of countries its airline serves do not have testing requirements. For Delta Air Lines, 44 of 50 countries it serves do not require testing.
Dropping the requirements will boost travel, “it will help induce and incent travelers to go abroad, bring more commerce in, more business,” said Ed Bastian, Delta Air Lines CEO.
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Will the US drop the vaccine requirement?
Despite the recent increase in COVID-19 cases worldwide, many countries are dropping all the COVID-19 travel requirements. In the Americas, countries like Mexico, El Salvador, Costa Rica, and Jamaica have lifted all COVID-19 entry regulations.
Across Europe, several countries have also lifted COVID-19 entry regulations. Among these countries, there is the UK, Iceland, Ireland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Belgium, Switzerland, Italy, Austria, Turkey, Poland, and many more. There are renewed calls in some countries (Canada, for instance) to end the vaccine requirements.
Nonetheless, there is no indication the United States is looking to drop the vaccination requirement for non-US travelers entering the country.
In April, Alejandro N. Mayorkas, Secretary of Homeland Security, said,
“The Biden-Harris Administration is committed to protecting public health while facilitating lawful trade and travel, which is essential to our economic security. That is why, after consulting with CDC and other federal agencies, DHS will continue to require non-U.S. individuals entering the United States via land ports of entry and ferry terminals to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 and provide related proof of vaccination upon request.”
What do you think about this latest announcement? Do you think the CDC should go further and remove the requirement of vaccination proof? Let us know in the comments below.