One of the last remaining pandemic air travel restrictions is about to end, with the Biden administration announcing Friday that it will lift the COVID-19 testing requirement for international passengers flying to the United States.
The change was confirmed by White House assistant press secretary Kevin Munoz on Twitter. It is expected to take effect Sunday, CNN reported.
Munoz said the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention “will evaluate its need based on the science and in context of circulating variants,” and cited the existence of COVID-19 vaccines and other treatments.
The mandate for a negative test result before air travel to the U.S. has been a key factor driving people to be hesitant about international trips, according to travel industry officials. Americans have been concerned about flying abroad and getting stuck in a foreign country for a week or longer to quarantine if they test positive.
The testing requirement, which has been in place since January 2021, was designed to curtail spread of the coronavirus amid a deadly winter surge that gripped the U.S. at the time. But it also added a layer of complication to trips abroad.
The travel industry argues the restriction has also slowed a recovery in corporate travel, because some businesses have been reluctant to send employees to other countries for work amid a risk that they would be unable to return home on schedule. And it has limited tourism to the United States, they say.
As a result, travel industry officials hiked pressure on U.S. government officials to lift the testing requirement, saying business could not fully recover without an end to the mandate.
Hundreds of travel associations, businesses and airports signed a letter sent to Dr. Ashish Jha, White House coronavirus response coordinator, in May asking for the pre-departure testing requirement to be removed.
Georgia-based signers included Delta Air Lines, IHG Hotels & Resorts, the Atlanta Convention & Visitors Bureau and Rome’s Office of Tourism.
Delta issued a statement Friday saying “removing this pandemic-era policy is not only welcome news to travelers who are ready to get back out and see the world, but will aid in the overall economic recovery of the U.S.”
Business travel spending in 2021 remained 56% below 2019 levels and international travel spending was still down 78%.
On Tuesday, 38 U.S. mayors signed a letter to Jha saying: “We strongly urge you to repeal the federal inbound testing requirement for vaccinated air travelers to the United States.”
They noted that other countries including the United Kingdom, Germany and Canada had already eliminated their pre-departure testing requirements for vaccinated travelers.
The U.S. Travel Association on Friday called the Biden administration’s move “another huge step forward for the recovery” of international travel to the U.S., and said the repeal of the testing requirement could bring an additional 5.4 million visitors to the U.S. this year.
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