Airlines and airports say EU’s new travel plan won’t revive flights

Airlines and airports said EU moves to help restart flights in the region through a more coordinated approach to coronavirus-related travel curbs are wholly inadequate. The measures, adopted Tuesday, fail to propose the replacement of quarantine requirements with coronavirus tests and won’t stop states refusing entry from other EU countries, the IATA said in a joint statement with Airports Council International and lobby group Airlines4Europe. The proposals backed by European Affairs Ministers seek to set a common threshold for entry restrictions, with unfettered travel allowed between areas with fewer than 25 new cases of Covid-19 per 100,000 people for the previous 14 days, and under 4% of tests showing positive results. None of the 27 EU states is below that threshold. Neither are the rules binding on governments. “We are pretty disappointed,” IATA DG Alexandre de Juniac said in a webcast briefing. “We were expecting the European Council at least to be open to replacing quarantines by testing.” IATA also backs the reopening of borders between countries with similar infection rates and longer delays between the announcement of new measures and their introduction. De Juniac reiterated calls for further financial support for airlines and said he expects that some carriers won’t survive the winter at current occupancy levels. <br/>