WASHINGTON – Major US and European Union airlines on Tuesday called on the EU and the White House to consider a joint program between the US and the EU to screen airline passengers for COVID-19 as a way to allow people to once again travel between the United States and Europe.
In a letter to the Vice President of the United States, Mike Pence, and Ylva Johansson, the European Commissioner for Internal Affairs, the CEOs of American Airlines, United Airlines, Lufthansa and International Airlines Group requested “the safe and speedy restoration of travel by air between the United States and Europe. “
Almost all Europeans are prohibited from traveling to the United States and similar restrictions exist for Americans seeking to travel to most of the EU due to the coronavirus pandemic.
“We recognize that testing presents a number of challenges, however we believe that a pilot test program for the transatlantic market could be an excellent opportunity for government and industry to work together and find ways to overcome obstacles and explore all solutions. to protect health, build trust, and safely restore passenger travel between
United States and Europe, “the airlines wrote in the letter.
Lufthansa spokesman Andreas Bartels said the airline “wanted to raise this issue because we believe there is the possibility of screening people at the airport, as we have shown in Frankfurt.”
US and EU officials discussed the idea of testing in June as a way to allow Americans to travel to the EU, but did not reach an agreement.
In June, the European Union excluded the United States from its initial “safe list” of countries from which the bloc will allow non-essential travel.
Last week, the US State Department said that foreign students from Europe are exempt from the travel restrictions adopted in March. The State Department said in a memo seen by Reuters that it would offer exemptions for some au pairs.
(Report by David Shepardson in Washington; Additional report by Laurence Frost in Paris; Edition by Franklin Paul and Matthew Lewis)
