FRANKFURT—European aviation industry leaders and regulators stressed Sept. 15 that common rules for COVID-19 testing are needed to prepare the ground for a recovery of the sector in the years ahead.
“Quarantines are equivalent to closing a market,” IATA SVP of member and external relations Sebastian Mikosz said during an Airlines for Europe (A4E) event.
He urged EU member states to drop blanket restrictions and instead go for a system of coronavirus testing equivalent to the logic of airport security checks ahead of departure. “There is great progress in testing,” Mikosz said. “Antigen tests will allow safe and fast tests” that could be completed within 15 minutes.
The European Commission earlier this month proposed a harmonized risk-based common assessment in several categories that it hopes will be adopted by member states. Participation is voluntary and would replace the “nationalistic approach” prevalent so far and criticized by easyJet CEO Johan Lundgren.
Travel restrictions are not justified by facts, European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) executive director Patrick Ky said. EASA has conducted analyses and surveys showing that infection rates among airport and airline staff are "relatively low" and even the highest observed rates at for individual airports and airlines did not exceed the median infection rates at state level. “That shows that air transport does not generate new cases,” Ky stated. In his view, flying is safer than other transport modes and safer than “many other things like grocery shopping. We have proven that people should not fear flying.”
According to EASA figures recorded in a week in late August, 180 of three million passengers carried by airlines participating in the survey could not fly because of COVID-19 symptoms. Seven passengers that had already boarded aircraft showed symptoms. 300 passengers were recorded that did not adhere to health protocols.
Ky added that uncertainty about rules at the destination and how passengers are processed when they get back home is significantly dampening demand for air travel. He agreed with Mikosz that “a common risk assessment will help tremendously. We need a common European approach and it would help reopening [borders] to partner countries.”
Air France-KLM CEO Ben Smith agreed that the system of color coding by the EC “should be promoted as a world standard” and that COVID-19 testing should be made mandatory prior to departure.
Smith indicated that European airlines will ask for more government help, as IATA has already demanded. The initial focus is on ensuring cash and pushing forward transformation projects, but “once we have a good idea of what the future will look like we will seek support from the rest of our stakeholders.”
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