New Push for COVID Tests for China Flights as Cases Soar Slammed by Airlines

Kim Hong Ji/ReutersThe global lobbying group for international air travel is siding with Beijing over harsh new COVID restrictions on flights originating in China. The International Air Transport Association said the “knee-jerk reinstatement” of measures such as pre-boarding COVID tests and tests on landing have been proven ineffective in the past, despite a worrying lack of transparency from Beijing. “Governments must base their decisions on science facts rather than science politics,” IATA Director General Willie Walsh said on Wednesday, adding that restrictions only delay a peak in new waves while “strangling off international connectivity, damaging economies and destroying jobs.”The comments mirror similar statements in March 2020, when the airline industry lobbied against closing off countries with soaring case numbers of COVID-19.Read more at The Daily Beast.