BARIG calls for standardised international COVID-19 restrictions approach

The Board of Airline Representatives in Germany (BARIG) is observing with great concern that, in view of the COVID-19 pandemic, individual countries – within the European Union (EU) and worldwide – are increasingly introducing individual and location-specific travel restrictions. These uncoordinated measures have led to difficulties in regard to managing a patchwork of regulations, which causes massive uncertainty among travellers.

The urgently needed international ‘track-and-tracing’ solution that enables compatibility between the individual state apps and enables successful data exchange is still missing. Instead, BARIG has outlined that the pandemic management must be coordinated, transparent and at the highest level in order to regain the trust of travellers and to help the heavily burdened international economy to get back up on its feet.

BARIG’s Secretary General, Michael Hoppe, said: “Countries that have adopted uncoordinated individual travel restrictions and regulations need to urgently rethink their actions. Joint, coordinated action by the international community – which also needs to be based on the recommendations of the expert bodies of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) – is essential for overcoming the global economic consequences of the pandemic.”

The specific demands of BARIG include:

• Joint assessment of the COVID-19 situation within the EU and worldwide by the responsible state ministries and higher-level institutions, such as the European Commission (EC) and a coordinated procedure derived from this
• Coordinated implementation of the ‘Take-Off Aviation Health Safety‘ protocol developed by ICAO, EASA and ECDC
• Compatibility of the tracing apps published by the states
• Clear information for travellers about possible measures always in coordination with the travel industry.

Hoppe added: “Travel restrictions not only hurt the aviation industry extremely, but also have a heavy impact on the European and global economy, and delay the urgently needed recovery enormously. The cooperation of the international community and the close coordination of measures are essential to ensure that travellers fly safely and enable the sustainable reactivation of the economic cycle, simultaneously. With the comprehensive protection and hygiene measures at the airports, as well as on board the aircraft, the aviation industry enables people to have a health-friendly transport.”