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Air travel organizations welcomed ICAO’s newly published ‘Manual on Testing and Cross Border Risk Management Measures’
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The manual helps countries assess COVID-19 tests and include them as part of their overall air transport public health responses to the virus
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IATA said the manual supports the call for systematic testing to safely reopen borders without quarantine measures
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ACI World said a risk-based approach to COVID-19 testing will reduce reliance on quarantine, which discourages the public from flying
The global air travel industry welcomed the International Civil Aviation Organization’s (ICAO) new document that provides governments a risk-based assessment tool for using COVID-19 testing programs that could alleviate quarantine requirements.
The ICAO on November 23 announced the release of the Manual on Testing and Cross Border Risk Management Measures, a document designed to help countries assess personal tests and include them as part of their overall air transport public health responses to COVID-19.
ICAO said: “COVID-19 testing, if applied according to the guidance contained in this manual, could reduce reliance on measures that restrict air travel and the movement of persons arriving in a country, such as quarantine, which evidence suggests is a disincentive to… travel.”
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) in a statement said the ICAO manual supports IATA’s call for systematic testing to safely reopen borders without quarantine measures.
IATA said the manual’s release is “encouraging progress” following recent comments from the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Dr. Didier Houssin, who foresees a role for testing as a means of reopening international travel without quarantine measures.
Houssin, who is WHO International Health Regulations Emergency Committee chair, said “clearly the use of the tests is certainly now supposed to have a much larger place compared to quarantine, for example, which would certainly facilitate things.”
Said Alexandre de Juniac, IATA’s director general and CEO: “Momentum is building in support of our call for systematic testing to safely re-open borders without quarantine measures.”
He noted that “health authorities are beginning to explore how testing could supersede quarantine to stop the cross-border spread of the virus. Encouraging results from testing pilot programs should now give states the confidence to move forward quickly.”
A step forward
The Airports Council International (ACI) World in a separate release also lauded the publication of the document as “a step forward in promoting the recovery of the global air travel industry.”
It said the ICAO manual will help to move the industry beyond quarantine measures as it provides guidance for countries in implementing testing as a component of their overall COVID-19 risk management strategy.
“The considerable efforts of the aviation industry to navigate the COVID-19 pandemic and to lead a global economic recovery are being severely hampered by restrictive and disproportionate measures such as quarantine,” ACI World director general Luis Felipe de Oliveira said.
“The aviation industry is united in the view that a coordinated and globally-consistent approach to testing as an alternative to quarantine will have the dual effect of reassuring passengers that air travel is safe and encouraging them to fly knowing they won’t have to quarantine.”
ACI said its recently published ASQ Global Traveller Survey found that 80% of those who wanted to travel in the coming months would be dissuaded if quarantine was required.
The new publication is available free of charge on ICAO’s COVID-19 online portal.
The manual is the result of a request that ICAO provide countries with updated guidance supporting the effective evaluation of disease testing options for air travellers.
It has been prepared by aviation health experts led by ICAO in close coordination with the Council Aviation Recovery Task Force and with support from WHO, United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, European Centre for Prevention and Disease Control and others, as well as aviation medical and health experts from governments and industry.
ICAO’s global traffic monitoring has recorded that air travel passenger demand dropped by 90% at the onset of the pandemic in April of this year, and it presently estimates that overall 2020 passenger totals will be down by 60% compared to 2019.
Photo by Jakayla Toney on Unsplash
