Airline industry not assertive enough in early days of Covid-19: IATA chief

The airline industry was too accepting of draconian restrictions on international travel in the first months of the pandemic, according to IATA DG Willie Walsh. Walsh laments the fact that “[governments] made it illegal for us to travel, and we all stood back and said ‘okay, that seems alright’”, making it “too easy” for them to keep borders closed. Attempts by airline leaders to balance “the public interest with the business interest” meant they were possibly “a little bit soft when we should have been pushy”, the former IAG chief recalls. Instead, “maybe we should have been challenging it a bit more, maybe we should be questioning the data and demanding greater evidence”, he suggests. If the push-back had been stronger, “I don’t think we would see the same level of restriction that we’re facing today”, Walsh states. Such frustrations led him to conclude that the industry ”needed a stronger voice”, which he now aims to offer as head of IATA. “I’ve never been shy about calling out problems when I’ve seen them,” Walsh says.<br/>