U.S. Airlines & Industry Executives Push To Terminate COVID Testing For Inbound International Travelers

While domestic travel has been climbing at feverish levels, particularly since the mask mandate was lifted, US airlines and other industry groups with an interest in business stemming from international travel are pushing to have the COVID-19 pre-departure testing dropped.

Recognizing that the summer holidays are just around the corner, the economic recovery has been somewhat sluggish, and international travel is nowhere near pre-pandemic numbers, the business groups have urged the White House to drop the requirement for fully vaccinated passengers, thereby removing what they see as a roadblock to the USA as a destination of choice of, for that matter, flying out of the USA.

Presently, individuals are required to have a negative COVID-19 test within 72 hours of flight. Some passengers whose flights were cancelled and rebooked for a later time found themselves scrambling to take another COVID-19 test because the initial one would have ‘expired’ by the time they were go through the boarding process. Furthermore, those who fear they may have contracted COVID-19 while inbound have reasonable concerns about being stranded overseas.

In the letter to the White House, the industry representatives also stated that the cost of maintaining this ‘mandate’ was “significant”, and sought to bolster their position by highlighting the fact that other foreign countries (United Kingdom Germany, and Canada) with similar COVID-19 trends as the USA had in fact eliminated the pre-departure COVID-19 testing. An addition point of note was the fact that those utilizing ground transportation to cross borders to Canada or Mexico have no such requirement.

FMI: https://tsa.gov