KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 13 (Bernama) — The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has renewed the industry’s call on governments to deploy more flexible policies to safely reopen borders using testing rather than to rely on quarantine measures.
Director-general and chief executive officer Alexandre de Juniac said scientifically, travellers would not be a significant factor in community transmission if testing is used effectively.
However, most governments have tunnel-vision on quarantine and are not at all focused on finding ways to safely re-open borders, or alleviate the self-imposed economic and mental health hardships of the lock downs.
“A more balanced public policy approach is needed, one that is based on testing as a replacement for quarantines, so that we can begin addressing the severe side effects of COVID-19 policies,” he said at IATA’s media briefing recently. His remark was made available on IATA’s website.
De Juniac said IATA continued to prepare for the day that governments are ready to open borders, with testing or vaccinations.
On some good news, he said the first pilot of the IATA Travel Pass app was launched in partnership with Singapore Airlines on routes to Kuala Lumpur and to Jakarta.
“We are still on track for a full rollout of the app during the first quarter of this year,” he added.
