Airport Council International (ACI) Asia Pacific has called on Japan to fully open its borders to air travel, as it publishes a study that highlights the ineffectiveness of travel restrictions for containing new coronavirus variants.
While Japan is taking very tentative steps to reopen for leisure travel, ACI notes that 200 countries will be divided into three risk categories, which will determine whether passengers can bypass quarantine and be subjected to less onerous Covid-19 testing measures.
ACI feels this will continue to hold back the direct and indirect benefits of air travel to the country, which has been all but cut off throughout the pandemic.
“Curbs on international travel does little to prevent the spread of Covid-19 but leads to significant impact on the economy, causing the loss of jobs and businesses,” says ACI Asia-Pacific director general Stefano Baronci.
“Analysis shows that travel restrictions have, to a large degree, failed to prevent the spread of Covid-19 and have turned out to be a deterrent for the recovery of aviation. Over the past few months, we have seen several Asian countries gradually abolishing travel restriction and have been successful in managing the situation without negatively impacting the health care system at national level. Therefore, we recommend the government of Japan to consider removing all remaining travel restrictions and allow people to travel freely.”
The study, prepared by Oxera and Edge Health, notes that it is difficult to identify new variants of concern quickly enough for travel restrictions to have a useful impact.
In addition, continued restrictions do little to prevent the spread of new variants, and have no impact on the size of peak infections – although they could slow they onset of the peak.
“If restrictions are imposed only one week after the variant is imported, there is at most a benefit of delaying the peak by three days, even if both pre-departure and on-arrival tests are introduced,” says ACI.
The study also indicates that any travel restrictions should be removed once local cases exceed the level that any restrictions will make a difference. Travel restrictions should also be imposed if they have real impact on the peak, and that governments should weigh the costs of restrictions against any benefits.
“Curbs on international travel does little to prevent the spread of Covid-19 but leads to significant impact on the economy, causing the loss of jobs and businesses,” adds Baronci.
“Analysis shows that travel restrictions have, to a large degree, failed to prevent the spread of Covid-19 and have turned out to be a deterrent for the recovery of aviation.”
