G-7 ministers agree to work to speed long-haul travel rebound

Transport and health ministers of the G-7 countries agreed to work toward common standards to accelerate a pickup in international travel as the aviation industry clamors for an end to a patchwork of rules and restrictions. In a statement issued after a virtual meeting held Thursday, officials from the Group of Seven countries said they would align their policies around principles such as fairness, protecting privacy, and relying on scientific evidence when setting travel rules. However, the meeting was short on concrete action. European officials pressed the US to set a date to implement a planned lifting of a ban on most EU and UK citizens, according to a person who was briefed on the discussions. While U.S. representatives said they were working toward the first half of November, airlines, airports and governments need to plan for a possible upswing in traffic and the need for public education, the person said. Airlines have been calling for a unified approach to global travel rules since the start of the coronavirus crisis. Airlines for Europe, the industry lobby group, called on the G-7 to promote the EU’s approach using so-called vaccine passports as a global standard. Citizens within the bloc have been able to move across borders without Covid-19 tests since summer, if they can show they’ve been fully inoculated or have recovered from the disease. <br/>