US travel industry seeks government roadmap to reopen borders this summer

Major US airline and travel groups on Monday urged the government to develop a plan to reopen international borders this summer, assuming COVID-19 vaccine and case counts continue to move towards positive trends. In a letter sent to the White House COVID-19 recovery coordinator Jeffrey Zients, more than two dozen industry groups, including Airlines for America, said: “The time to plan for and chart a defined roadmap to reopen international travel is now.” The United States has banned most travel from Britain, Europe, Brazil, China and South Africa since the coronavirus pandemic started taking hold last year, devastating the airline and travel industry globally. The US groups called for a risk-based, data-driven roadmap to safely lift those restrictions to be finalized before May 1 so that a plan is in place for international travel by the summer of 2021.<br/>