News
| Jun 10, 2022

US to drop COVID testing for incoming international air travellers

/ Our Today

administrator
Reading Time: 2 minutes
Travellers wearing protective face masks to prevent the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) reclaim their luggage at the airport in Denver, Colorado, U.S., November 24, 2020. (Photo: REUTERS/Kevin Mohatt/File)

WASHINGTON (Reuters)

The Biden administration will drop pre-departure COVID-19 international air testing requirements effective Sunday (June 12) at 12:01 am after heavy lobbying from airlines and the travel industry, a senior administration official told Reuters.

The Biden administration will announce on Friday that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) will no longer require pre-departure COVID-19 testing for travellers coming to the United States after it determined, based on the science and data, that this requirement is no longer necessary.

CDC will do a reassessment of this decision in 90 days, the official said.

Since December, the CDC has required travellers to test negative within one day before flights to the United States but does not require testing for land border crossings.

The official said, “If there is a need to reinstate a pre-departure testing requirement — including due to a new, concerning variant — CDC will not hesitate to act.”

American Airlines chief executive Robert Isom said last week at a conference that the testing requirements were “nonsensical” and were “depressing” leisure and business travel.

Airlines have said that many Americans are not travelling internationally because of concerns they will test positive and be stranded abroad.

Isom said 75 per cent of countries American Airlines serves do not have testing requirements.

“We’re really frustrated and this is something that is damaging not only US travel but it just doesn’t make sense,” Isom said last week.

In December, the CDC tightened requirements for international air travellers to get a negative test within one day rather than three days of coming to the United States.

Comments

What To Read Next

News JAM Jul 9, 2025

Reading Time: 4 minutesTransport Minister Daryl Vaz has strongly defended the government’s Rural School Bus System amid what he described as disingenuous and politically motivated attacks by the Opposition People’s National Party (PNP).

Vaz stated that although the opposition has sought to turn the bus system into a political football, he noted that the bus system is not a matter to be politicised because it benefits all rural parents and students regardless of colour, creed or political affiliation.