One of the main things that has been holding so many Americans back from traveling internationally, and foreigners from coming to the United States, has been the pre-departure COVID-19 international air testing requirement. The testing, which required it to be done one day before departure and for travelers to upload their negative results, was tedious, expensive and a deterrent.
I personally haven’t traveled internationally for business because I didn’t want to take the chance of testing positive and having to quarantine for 10 days abroad, which would have been cost prohibitive (if I didn’t have travel insurance) and most importantly, prevent me from going home to help take care of my kids. Since I have two little kids, I try not to go away for more than a few days since I don’t want to miss any of their development and to help my wife keep them safe.
Airlines and the travel industry have been lobbying heavily for the administration to drop the requirement and according to Reuters: “The Biden administration will drop pre-departure COVID-19 international air testing requirements effective Sunday at 12:01 a.m.”
Reuters is also reporting: “The CDC will do a reassessment of this decision in 90 days.”
U.S. Travel Association President issued the following statement on the news: “Today marks another huge step forward for the recovery of inbound air travel and the return of international travel to the United States. The Biden administration is to be commended for this action, which will welcome back visitors from around the world and accelerate the recovery of the U.S. travel industry.”
They also quoted a new analysis “found that repealing the pre-departure testing requirement could bring an additional 5.4 million visitors to the U.S. and an additional $9 billion in travel spending through the remainder of 2022.”
Hello, what about unvaccinated international travelers going to the United States? Are they still required to be vaccinated or has that dropped as well?
thanks johnny jet, im leaving to Mexico next week and just in time and less expense on the way back to USA.
Big mistake! When corporations can dictate the health and well-being of its citizens all hope for health and public safety are gone. As with everything in the US it comes to greed and selfishness. Why place any bans on anything for health and safety? I’ll leave it there.