Willie Walsh, Director General

restart policies that manage COVID-19 risks while reviving livelihoods and boosting economies.

The data on vaccination shows that vaccination protects travelers from serious illness and death and carries a low risk of introducing the virus into destination countries. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (US CDC) stated that “with a 90% eff ective vaccine, pre-travel testing, post-travel testing, and 7-day self-quarantine provide minimal additional benefi t.”

But we can’t restrict travel to only those who are vaccinated. The data here tells us that testing, not quarantine, is the solution.

We teamed-up with Airbus and Boeing to demonstrate potential methodologies to demonstrate how the risks of COVID-19 can be managed in various scenarios.

Focusing on risks across the whole journey, Airbus considered more than 50 variables in its model. Meanwhile, Boeing modeled the effi cacy of testing strategies.

Both studies came to a similar conclusion—screening can keep COVID-19 importation at manageable levels. And that should allow governments to give people back the freedom to travel without putting individuals in undue risk or jeopardizing the viability of the healthcare system.

Using data, we can work with governments to calibrate travel policies to protect people, revitalize jobs and strengthen the economic restart. Everybody can respect a data-driven decision. That is the way back to normality.

Willie Walsh IATA Director General

passenger waiting times at airports have doubled to around three hours. Without process improvements, these delays could increase to eight hours when traffi c returns to 100 % of 2019 levels. The solution to avoid this is digitalization and automation of COVID19 health checks.

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