ASTA Says Inbound Testing Is Biggest Impediment To Travel Recovery

In response to the recent U.S. court decision striking down the federal government’s transportation mask mandate, ASTA President and CEO Zane Kerby says masks are not the major issue in the travel industry’s recovery.

“The current back and forth on the mask mandate pertaining to various forms of transportation misses the mark and overshadows very real policies deterring international travel,” Kerby said in a statement.

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“Requiring Americans to test negative prior to returning home from abroad is the public policy that needs immediate reversal. Millions of Americans travel by air every day. Those traveling internationally risk quarantining abroad and navigating multiple foreign countries’ bureaucratic and ever-changing pandemic rules. As a result, Americans are delaying or simply cancelling international trips, ensuring once again that travel will be the last industry to recover from the pandemic,” Kerby added.

ASTA says it supports lifting the inbound testing requirement for all travellers, regardless of vaccination status, and that remains its ultimate policy objective. But the group says that with bipartisan support in Congress, exempting vaccinated travellers from the requirement represents “a logical and achievable first step.”

“Exempting the more than 218 million Americans who are fully vaccinated from the order would reflect the scientific consensus that widespread vaccination is the single most essential element of the fight against COVID-19, while allowing the travel industry’s recovery to begin in earnest,” Kerby’s statement added.

ASTA adds that the rules are confusing for travellers.

“The current policy also creates the false impression that travel outside of the U.S. invariably poses a greater COVID risk than travel within the U.S. How else would the typical traveller understand why a flight from London to New York requires testing while a flight from New York to Los Angeles does not?”