The International Air Transport Association has expressed firm opposition to proposed requirements by the UK and Spain for a 14-day quarantine period for travelers entering their countries, arguing that such restrictions would sabotage any effort to restart international traffic after this year’s second quarter. Speaking Wednesday during a weekly conference call on the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on the air transport industry, IATA director general Alexandre de Juniac cited statistics showing that 69 percent of all potential international passengers would not return to travel under the threat of quarantine, while 84 percent ranked it as one of their top concerns.
In a televised speech on May 10, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson mentioned plans to require all passengers arriving in the country to be fully quarantined at a nominated address. A guidance document published the next day said that further details of the requirements would follow and that they would include a “shortlist” of exemptions for groups of travelers. As of May 13, the government had yet to provide any details, fueling widespread concern not only in the air transport sector but also from major companies in other industries who said that the requirements would prove completely impractical and detrimental to the economy.
“We cannot restart under such conditions,” reacted De Juniac. “Our top priority is to restart this industry safely. We are proposing a series of measures to give governments the confidence to reopen their borders. It’s a risk-based, layered approach to biosecurity that needs to be coordinated globally. The arrival countries need to be confident of the procedures in place at the departing airport, and travelers will need the reassurance of common measures.”
The proposals include temperature checks “and other measures” at departure to prevent symptomatic passengers from flying, a “robust” government-managed system of health declarations, and “rigorous” contract tracing, added De Juniac.
IATA reiterated its belief that long-haul travel will return more slowly than domestic, noting that international revenue passenger kilometers (RPKs) won’t likely return to 2019 levels until 2024—two years later than domestic RPKs. In fact, IATA doesn’t believe average stage lengths will return to 2019 levels until after 2025, underscoring the point that such traffic-stifling measures such as quarantines will serve to only slow the recovery further.