Happy days seem to be here again for aviation industry

From 14 February, the Indian government has scrapped the pre-departure testing requirement, and the 7-day home quarantine has been replaced with a 14-day self-monitoring. The 'at risk' list has also been done away with and only 2 per cent of passengers are being tested randomly.

The move suggests the government's policy shift towards monitoring the situation instead of a full-blown preventive approach.

Indian airlines used to operate 2,800 flights at its peak pre-Covid and breached 80 per cent of those numbers last week. Domestic passenger numbers have rebound fast too and Indian airlines carried 343,000 passengers on Sunday on 2335 flights.

IATA reported a sharp 11-percentage point increase for international tickets sold in recent weeks (in proportion to 2019 sales). In the period around 8 February (7 day moving average) the number of tickets sold stood at 49 per cent of the same period in 2019. In the period around 25 January (7 day moving average) the number of tickets sold stood at 38 per cent of the same period in 2019. The 11-percentage point improvement between the January and February periods is the fastest such increase for any two-week period since the crisis began.

IATA continues to call for: Removing all travel barriers (including quarantine and testing) for those fully vaccinated with a WHO-approved vaccine; enabling quarantine-free travel for non-vaccinated travellers with a negative pre-departure antigen test result; removing travel bans, and,

accelerating the easing of travel restrictions in recognition that travellers pose no greater risk for Covid-19 spread than already exists in the general population. The jump in ticket sales comes as more governments announce a relaxation of Covid-19 border restrictions. An IATA survey of travel restrictions for the world's top 50 air travel markets (comprising 92 per cent of global demand in 2019 as measured by revenue passenger kilometers) revealed the growing access available to vaccinated travellers.

18 markets (comprising about 20 per cent of 2019 demand) are open to vaccinated travellers without quarantine or pre-departure testing requirements. 28 markets are open to vaccinated travellers without quarantine requirements (including the 18 markets noted above). This comprises about 50 per cent of 2019 demand. 37 markets (comprising about 60 per cent of 2019 demand) are open to vaccinated travellers under varying conditions (18 having no restrictions, others requiring testing or quarantine or both).

These numbers reflect a spate of relaxations announced around the world, including in Australia, France, the Philippines, the UK, Switzerland, and Sweden among them. The Recommendation adopted today by EU includes the criteria that: EU States should accept all travellers fully vaccinated with EU approved vaccines without any restrictions or conditions; EU States should accept all travellers fully vaccinated with other WHO listed vaccines and recovered travellers either without any restrictions/conditions or only with the requirement of a negative pre-departure PCR test and EU States could also fully accept fully vaccinated travellers not holding a valid EU DCC or equivalent, subject to a negative pre-departure PCR test.