EASA/ECDC guidelines confirm ineffectiveness of passenger quarantines
World over chorus is growing for making travel, at least short term travel, quarantine free to revive the pandemic-struck industry. New guidelines by EASA/ECDC have termed quarantine of passengers as ineffective. Taking the cue World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) has also said that International business travel could restart if agreement is secured to safeguard journeys of up to 72-hours free from quarantines.
The joint recommendation for the short stay exemption comes from the European Union Aviation Safety Agency and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (EASA/ECDC) and is welcomed by WTTC, which represents the global Travel & Tourism private sector.
EASA and ECDC have joined forces to call for an exemption on quarantine for people travelling for less than 72 hours, a move which WTTC believes could signal the return of international business travel and provide a significant economic boost. Airlines and Airports have also called Governments to immediately abolish passenger quarantines as EASA/ECDC guidelines confirm their ineffectiveness. Guidelines confirm air travellers account for <1% of all detected COVID-19 cases and do not increase the rate of COVID-19 transmission.
The proposal is also under active study by the UK government, according to the Report of the Global Travel Taskforce, of which WTTC is a key contributor, which was prepared for the Department for Transport.
WTTC agrees with EASA/ECDC who have called for travellers not to be automatically considered as high-risk for possibly spreading the infection.
However, the recommendations fall short as they do not address the replacement of quarantines for a testing regime at departure, with quarantines causing untold damage to the already struggling global Travel & Tourism sector.
Gloria Guevara, WTTC President & CEO, said: “The revival of international business travel is crucial to kickstarting the global economic recovery, as last year, inbound international business travel across Europe accounted for US$111.3 billion (€99.8 billion), whilst globally it accounted for more than US$272 billion.
“The EASA/ECDC proposed guidelines to exempt passengers from quarantines for travel of 72 hours or less would be a significant step in the direction towards the wholesale revival of business travel.
“Airlines, hotels and a vast infrastructure of businesses within the global Travel & Tourism sector, all heavily rely upon business travel. The loss of international business travel leaves airlines especially exposed, particularly on highly competitive short-haul and transatlantic routes, which depend upon them for the bulk of their profits.
“While we welcome all initiatives which could lead to the revival of international travel, we hope to persuade EASA and ECDC to focus on testing at departure, rather than at the point of entry, so as to reduce the possibility of transmission on board aircraft and reduce unnecessary barriers to travel.
“These measures will help ensure the long-term resuscitation of the global Travel & Tourism sector, which, according to WTTC’s 2020 Economic Impact Report, during 2019, was responsible for one in 10 jobs (330 million total), and made a 10.3% contribution to global GDP and generated one in four of all new jobs.”
The guidelines from EASA/ECDC considered the reduced likelihood for infection for those travelling for short periods (i.e. those expecting to return within 72 hours or less) and where contacts with the local population are limited and avoiding any social interactions.
It suggests such travellers should not be subjected to quarantines and/or COVID-19 testing unless they show any symptoms of the virus. However, it continued to recommend all of those who travel must still ensure they adhere to local social distancing rules, to protect themselves and others around them, at all times.
“These Guidelines unequivocally show quarantines to be essentially politically-driven, non-risk-based measures which bear no relation to what is actually needed to safeguard public health. As such, quarantines fail the test of proportionality, a key principle of EU law – particularly since there are no equivalent measures at land borders. This has resulted in unprecedented limitations to the freedom of movement and the freedom to provide services. We call on national governments to immediately abolish their quarantine restrictions and restore freedom of movement for European citizens”, said Olivier Jankovec, Director General of ACI EUROPE.
The EASA/ECDC Guidelines consider 14- day quarantines to be effective only in the “exceptional situation” where a country has achieved full control over the virus and reduced transmission levels to close to zero, and only then for travellers entering from countries where the virus keeps circulating.
Apart from the data presented by the Guidelines, several other analyses confirm the absence of a correlation between passenger traffic and prevalence rates at national level:
- ACI EUROPE’s analysis of airport passenger data in the third quarter of 2020 unequivocally rejects any relationship between air travel and increasing COVID-19 transmission rates. The brief increase in air passenger traffic during this period was proven to have no statistically significant relationship with the COVID-19 test positivity rate, based on aviation, public health and community mobility data. ACI EUROPE’s paper can be found here.
- Similarly, Oxera’s study confirmed that the risk of introducing infections from international travel should be assessed relative to domestic infection levels. It projected that among weekly incoming passenger volumes of 409,800 from the EU to the UK, only 0.01% of air travellers were expected to be infectious travellers being released into the UK population. This is the equivalent of one infectious person per 10,000 travellers.
- McMaster HealthLabs in Canada has also published its interim report on their COVID-19 study of arriving international passengers, which again backs up the figure of 99% of passengers testing negative. This, says the labs, is a powerful tool to make “science- based policy decisions” and reject quarantines as a relevant approach to containment. Airlines and airports continue to believe that rapid testing of passengers travelling between high and low-risk areas can contribute to and support the early detection of cases amongst asymptomatic travellers.
“Testing technologies are evolving quickly, and we stand ready to work with EASA, the ECDC and national governments to implement the most efficient and effective methods to get Europe moving again”, said Montserrat Barriga, Director General, European Regions Airline Association (ERA).
“Rapid testing of passengers for COVID-19 opens the door to restarting air travel by eliminating quarantine. And the public agrees: Some 65% of travelers surveyed suggest quarantine should not apply to passengers who have tested negative. The EASA/ECDC protocol makes it clear that quarantine is not an effective measure in the present circumstances. And it is important that the protocol should also be applied to remove the temporary travel restrictions on non-essential travel into the EU from third countries”, said Rafael Schvartzman, IATA’s Regional Vice President for Europe.
European air passenger traffic has been among the most heavily impacted of any region, and recently plunged to -89% at EU/EEA/Swiss & UK airports. To-date, 102 airports across Europe accounting for 47% of passenger traffic on the continent have deployed testing facilities under the supervision of their competent health and aviation authorities. These testing facilities have allowed a number of airlines and airports to propose “COVID-19 free flights” and quarantine-free travel corridors on certain air routes, including most recently between Italy and the United States, based on a testing protocol for air travellers. This proves the all-important role that testing can play in re-establishing connectivity.