The prospects that vaccine certificates provide should be solidified by the European Union Member States as a way to coordinate on a common approach to restoring air travel as soon as it is safely possible, the Airlines for Europe (A4E) believes.

In a position paper published by A4E, an airline association that counts 16 members of leading, and represents over two-thirds of the European air traffic, recommends several common approaches that the EU Member States may undertake in order to facilitate travel amid COVID-19 and help air travel to restore.

Before presenting their recommendations, the association notes that “the European airlines and the wider travel sector cannot wait until the whole population is vaccinated before making plans to restart operations.”

According to the position paper, the ongoing roll-out of vaccination programmes and increasing levels of protection among the population should be reflected in a progressive removal of national travel restrictions, so that airlines and travellers have the necessary confidence to plan and book travel during the upcoming Easter and summer holidays.

“We, therefore, call upon the Member States to urgently agree on a concrete roadmap to restart air travel. Such a roadmap should be developed with industry via an aviation and tourism taskforce between EU institutions, and presented to European travellers as a clear pathway to travel,” the association suggests.

It also notes that the Member states shall make the best use of the ongoing vaccination campaigns which could be used as an additional tool to support the restart of air travel, as well as to coordinate better on the rules on travel restrictions, testing and quarantines.

While the association recommends that vaccinated travellers should be allowed to travel without restrictions as testing and quarantine, it also insists that vaccination certificates/passports must not be a requirement for travel.

At the same time, the association calls for the removal of blanket travel bans or blanket negative travel advisories, adding that travel restrictions and advisory from the origin country/region should be adjusted to the actual situation in the destination area.

“Ideally, all Member States would follow the same approach and make the same assessment on a detailed regional basis (including on a per-island basis in the case of touristic archipelagos such as the Greek islands, Balearics or Canary Islands),” the proposal paper suggests.

It also proposes that the Member States should create safe travel corridors with third countries.

As per testing before/upon arrival, the association recommends that reliable antigen or other types of rapid tests should be accepted for entry into the Member States due to their low cost and very quick turnaround.

Finally, A4E insists that the current quarantine requirements imposed by the Member States are hindering the recovery of air travel to large extends, claiming that studies have demonstrated that quarantine and self-isolation are not effective means to prevent the spread of the virus.

Thus, the proposal paper by Europe for Airline scall on the replacement of all quarantine and self-isolation requirements by the member states with testing, either before departure or upon arrival.