Now that the U.S. has made it through its latest surge of COVID-19 cases, travel groups are renewing calls for the White House to ease the country’s remaining travel restrictions.
A Tuesday letter from the U.S. Travel Association urges incoming White House COVID response coordinator Dr. Ashish Jha to “quickly focus” on replacing COVID-related travel measures with endemic-focused policies. This includes repealing the federal mask mandate by April 18, removing the pre-departure testing requirement for inbound vaccinated international travelers and ending international COVID travel advisories.
Airlines for America, the lobbying group for the U.S. airline industry, sent a similar letter to President Joe Biden on Wednesday.
“Much has changed since these measures were imposed and they no longer make sense in the current public health context,” Airlines for America’s letter reads.
This isn’t the first time the groups have asked White House officials to ease travel restrictions.
A Feb. 2 letter to White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator Jeffrey Zients signed by both Airlines for America and the U.S. Travel Association asked for an end to the pre-departure testing requirement for vaccinated passengers flying to the United States. Another February letter to Zients from the two groups asked the Biden administration to lift travel requirements.
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