Airlines ‘Lament’ EU COVID Test Proposals For China Passengers

PARIS—Airlines and airports have expressed their disappointment at a recommendation that European Union member states should introduce COVID-19 test requirements for passengers traveling from China to the EU.  

“The member states are strongly encouraged to introduce, for all passengers departing from China to member states, the requirement for a negative COVID-19 test taken not more than 48 hours prior to departure from China,” according to a statement by the Swedish presidency of the EU Council, which took over at the start of the year.  

Individual countries are free to decide whether or not to impose the requirements, and the meeting to decide on a coordinated recommendation came after several individual EU countries had already imposed mask-wearing or testing requirements in recent days. 

Those moves came in response to the news that the Chinese government was removing the quarantine requirement and flight capacity limit, moves which are expected to open up international travel after a long hiatus.  

As well as recommending the testing requirement, member states also agreed to recommend the wearing of a medical mask or FFP2/N95/KN95 respirator on flights to and from China and to issue advice to passengers traveling to or from China regarding personal hygiene and health measures.  

Airlines for Europe (A4E) and the International Air Transport Association (IATA), as well as airports represented by ACI Europe, said they “lament” the recommendation. 

“Such a recommendation is at odds with the assessment published by the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) on Jan. 3, 2023, which confirms that the current surge of COVID-19 cases in China is not expected to impact the epidemiological situation in the EU/EEA,” the industry bodies said. “This is because the COVID-19 variants circulating in China are already present in the EU/EEA, as well as the higher immunity acquired by the population of the EU. As such, systematically testing incoming travelers from China cannot be considered a scientifically driven and risk-based measure.” 

IATA Director General Willie Walsh had already spoken out against travel testing requirements when several individual countries, including France and Spain, introduced measures. Walsh had said Jan. 4 that the decisions by individual countries were “a knee-jerk reinstatement of measures that have proven ineffective over the last three years.”  

“A4E, ACI Europe and IATA support getting away from testing passengers as a way to track COVID-19,” the associations said. “In this regard, the recommendation to test wastewater from airports and aircraft arriving from China offers an alternative.” 

The bodies said this course of action should come with detailed consideration of technical and operational practicalities and that while airports and airlines would do their utmost to facilitate such sampling it would need to be carried out by competent health authorities. 

The bodies said that now the recommendations had been agreed to it was vital they were implemented uniformly by EU member states.  

“We urge EU member states and China to work together and to reconsider at the earliest opportunity their requirements for systematic pre-departure testing of travelers based on a scientifically driven risk assessment,” they added.  

The Swedish presidency of the EU said that member states were being encouraged to complement testing and mask-wearing measures with random testing and sequencing of all positive results to better monitor the evolution of the coronavirus; testing and sequencing of wastewater from airports with international flights and aircraft arriving from China; as well as continuing to encourage vaccination.  

They agreed to assess the situation and review the measures introduced by mid-January.