IATA Urges States to Follow WHO Cross-border Travel Guidelines

Chinedu Eze
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) called on states to follow the new guidelines on travel from the World Health Organisation (WHO).
The guidance recommends a, “risk-based approach” to implementing measures related to COVID-19 and international travel.
It was expected to be presented to the WHO COVID-19 International Health Regulations Emergency Committee yesterday.

Specifically, WHO recommended that governments do not require proof of COVID-19 vaccination as a mandatory condition for entry or exit; remove measures such as testing and/or quarantine requirements for travelers who are fully vaccinated or have had a confirmed previous COVID-19 infection within the past six months; ensure alternative pathways for unvaccinated individuals through testing so that they are able to travel internationally.

The WHO recommended rRT-PCR tests or antigen detection rapid diagnostic tests (Ag-RDTs) for this purpose and that only implement test and/or quarantine measures for international travelers “on a risk-based manner” with policies on testing and quarantine regularly reviewed to ensure they are lifted when no longer necessary.
“These commonsense, risk-based recommendations from WHO, if followed by states, will allow for international air travel to resume while minimizing the chance of importing COVID-19.

“As WHO notes—and as the latest UK testing data proves—international travelers are not a high-risk group in terms of COVID-19. Out of 1.65 million tests carried out on arriving international passengers in the UK since February, only 1.4 per cent were positive for COVID-19.
“It’s long past time for governments to incorporate data into risk-based decision-making process for re-opening borders,” said IATA’s Director General, Willie Walsh.

WHO also called on states to communicate, “in a timely and adequate manner” any changes to international health-related measures and requirements.”
“Consumers face a maze of confusing, uncoordinated and fast-changing border entry rules that discourage them from traveling, causing economic hardship across those employed in the travel and tourism sector.
“According to our latest passenger survey, 70 per cent of recent travelers thought the rules were a challenge to understand,” said Walsh.

Additionally, WHO encouraged states to look at bilateral, multilateral, and regional agreements, particularly among neighboring counties, “with the aim of facilitating the recovery of key socioeconomic activities” including tourism, for which international travel plays a vital role.

Air Peace Restores Banjul, Dakar Flights
Air Peace has announced the resumption of flight operations into Banjul in Gambia and Dakar in Senegal from July 23, 2021, to provide more options for regional connectivity.
The spokesperson of the airline, Stanley Olisa, who made the announcement said that Banjul and Dakar flight services would operate on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

“We are glad to let the flying public know that we are reinstating our Lagos-Banjul, -Dakar flight operations to offer more regional connectivity while our daily Gombe flights from Lagos and Abuja will be launched on August 9, 2021.

“Dakar and Banjul routes will be operated with our ultramodern Embraer 195-E2 aircraft, and we shall resume more routes and increase frequencies to other destinations as we take delivery of more brand new E195-E2s as well as other aircraft undergoing maintenance abroad,” Olisa stated.

The airline said customers can now book for the resumed routes on the airline’s website or its mobile app. It restated Air Peace’s resolve to continue providing peaceful, strategic, and affordable connections, while observing the highest standards of safety.
Air Peace had suspended its regional routes consequent upon the outbreak of COVID-19 and the lockdown that ensued last year, but it is now resuming these routes, the first being Accra, which was restored in March, 2021.

Air Peace currently services 17 domestic routes, five regional routes and two international destinations, including Johannesburg, while it boasts of a mixed fleet of 28 aircraft, the latest being three brand new 124-seat capacity E195-E2 jets.

Aviation, Cargo Conference Holds in August
Stakeholders are signing up for the first aviation, cargo and export conference in Nigeria. The event is coming up on August 25th and 26th, 2021 in Lagos.
The organisers of the conference said it has earned the support of the Federal Airport Authority (FAAN) and Ethiopian Airlines Cargo along with many airlines, logistics and global financial service companies.

The organisers noted that since 1935, aviation has been growing in Nigeria and with so many airlines and airports, it is expected that aviation should and would contribute more to the nation’s economy.
The conveners of the event ATQNews, a global Pan African Travel News Organization said the conference was long overdue.

“Nigeria, a country with over 200 million resourceful people depends a lot on imports; this has been eroding the national wealth. A lot of airlines bring freighters daily to Nigeria and most of them fly out empty.
“There is therefore a need to change this dysfunctional scenario. Nigeria needs to export more and aviation should be the key to increasing exports,” it added.

“To this end ATQNews seeks to convene an annual conference that brings all potential exporters, cargo managers, Logistics firms, airlines, airports, customs and everyone in the aviation and cargo ecosystem to chart a pathway that enables Nigerians export more. As the importance of oil wanes, the value and volume of non-oil export should be growing and Aviation should be driving it,” the convener said.

The conference, which would have an exhibition part, would be broken into three parts over two days: Aviation, Cargo and Exports. The aviation aspect will have a presentation and panel discussion on ‘Airlines, Airports and Aviation.’ Experts including airline CEOs, past airport CEOs and aviators would discuss the reasons why our airlines and airport systems have not delivered the best possible outcomes for aviation in Nigeria.
The second section on cargo would be on presentations and panel discussions on the cargo and logistics value chain, the challenges of scale and the opportunities available.

The third part would be on export. How do we scale our Export Capacity? How do we remove the impediments and improve our access and market penetration globally? There will be a support session on Insurance and Financing of Aviation, Cargo and Export in Nigeria.

At the end of the 2-day event, “we will be leaving the event with enough Knowledge about the current aviation situation in Nigeria and its role in growing the economy by driving bigger cargo export from Nigeria. With this understanding of the Cargo and Export Systems we can integrate our systems by networking and learning from each other as problems shared eventually become problems solved” according to the publisher of ATQNews, the organiser of the event.