Scrap tests required to enter US: Airline and Travel Associations

Airlines for America, which represents the US’s biggest carriers, and 28 other airline, travel and business groups sent out a message to the White House Coronavirus policy adviser asking the Biden administration to end the testing requirement

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AP reported that airline and tourism groups want the US government to eliminate the requirement that international travellers provide a negative test for Covid-19 before boarding an US-bound plane. They believe that the testing rule has been discouraging people from booking international trips. They mention the example of United Kingdom, which eliminated a similar rule last month.

Airlines for America, which represents the US’s biggest carriers, and 28 other airline, travel and business groups sent out a message to the White House Coronavirus policy adviser asking the Biden administration to end the testing requirement. The groups said that the testing requirement was no longer needed because of the high number of Covid-19 cases already in every state, higher vaccinations rates and new treatments for the virus. “Removing the requirement will greatly support the recovery of travel and aviation in the United States and globally without increasing the spread of Covid-19 and its variants,” they wrote. The White House, however, has not responded immediately to a request for comment.

 

  • Airlines for America said its member airlines carried 38 per cent fewer international passengers in late January than in the same period of 2019. Travel between the US and China — which has its own tight restrictions on international travel — remains just 2 per cent of pre-pandemic levels.

  • Separately, leaders of the US Travel Association said that they are talking to members of Congress about tax changes they say would boost business travel.

 

At the same time, one of the major tourism-industry groups said it was seeking tax breaks for conventions and trade shows, which it believes will help revive business travel. Domestic leisure travel in the US has recovered to prepandemic levels, but business and international travel have not fully rebounded. From early 2020 through last December, spending in the US on travel has dropped by a cumulative USD 730 billion, and many jobs in the sector have not come back, according to the US Travel Association.

Airlines for America said its member airlines carried 38 per cent fewer international passengers in late January than in the same period of 2019. Travel between the US and China — which has its own tight restrictions on international travel — remains just 2 per cent of pre-pandemic levels.

Separately, leaders of the US Travel Association said that they are talking to members of Congress about tax changes they say would boost business travel.

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