The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has urged governments to use the commitments reached at the ICAO High Level Conference on Covid-19 (HLCC) to make real progress towards restoring global air connectivity.
States attending the event declared their commitment to 14 measures which, if acted upon, would enable airlines to meet the demands of consumers worldwide for a revival of air travel.
In particular, two commitments need the most urgent action by governments.
The first sees governments commit to promoting “a harmonized and inclusive approach to facilitate safe international air travel”, while the second refers to the roll-out of ICAO guidelines on harmonising risk assessment.
“Government-imposed restrictions continue to stop a revival of international travel.
“It remains 70 per cent down on pre-crisis levels.
“The ICAO HLCC commitments show that governments understand what is needed to re-start global connectivity.
“The task now is implementation,” said Willie Walsh, IATA director general.
“Some governments have already started.
“The imminent opening of the US market to vaccinated travellers will be a big step forward.
“But we cannot let the output of this meeting remain as words on paper.
“The airline industry, 88 million livelihoods, 3.5 per cent of global GDP and billions of travellers are counting on governments to deliver on the risk-managed reopening of international travel to which they have committed,” Walsh added.