Europe’s aviation sector has welcomed the European Commission’s proposal for a Digital Green Certificate system. The proposed certification scheme will require EU States to issue common, inter-operable and mutually-recognised certificates for COVID-19 vaccination, testing and recovery status that will facilitate free movement during the COVID pandemic and support the restart of travel.
Industry trade bodies including European Region Airlines Association (ERA), the International Air Transport Association (IATA) Airports Council International (ACI) Europe, the Civil Air Navigation Systems Organisation (CANSO), Airlines for Europe (A4E) and the Aerospace and Defence Industries Association of Europe (ASD) consider these certificates a key tool to facilitate a safe and efficient resumption of travel and tourism in Europe.
A statement from the associations read: “We welcome the European Commission’s adoption of the proposal for a Digital Green Certificate. The EC has our full support and we call on the European Parliament and Council to work on its swift adoption via an emergency procedure. We need a clear path out of this crippling situation, and appeal once again to the EU Member States to implement common solutions and plan ahead in a fully coordinated and aligned way. We repeat: a safe restart of air travel is possible, and we can save both lives and livelihoods – but we need the EU to lead from the front. States must now do their part by acting in a coordinated manner, to avert yet another patchwork solution of fragmented agreements borne out of frustration and necessity.”
Revealing the strong pent-up demand for travel, recent polling showed that 54% of Europeans aim to take a trip before the end of July 2021. Among this group, 41% wish to travel to another European country, underlining the benefit of common EU framework. In addition 89% of people agree that governments need to standardise testing and vaccine certificates.
EU Governments are being urged to ensure certificates are operational in time for the peak summer travel months – with vaccination certificates, in particular enabling the elimination of restrictions to travel whilst recognising that vaccination should not be mandatory in order to travel. A more detailed plan is also needed to energise economic recovery and restore freedom of movement as soon as borders are reopened.
Reiterating their call for an EU Task Force for the Restoration of the Free Movement of People, the associations urged the European Institutions to immediately begin work on this roadmap, which needs to follow a risk-based and data-driven approach taking into account: the acceleration of the vaccine roll-out across the EU over the coming months; an ambitious and coordinated testing strategy; the evolution of the epidemiological situation; existing statistical modelling on the very limited impact of travel on COVID-19 incidence rates; and the results of COVID-19 tested flight pilots.
With the latest data released by ACI Europe showing that more than 7,500 air routes across Europe have been lost as a result of the pandemic, the situation is particularly acute in teh EU/ EEA/ Switzerland and the UK, with a -89.3% decrease in passenger volumes in February compared with a year ago. In contrast, the rest of the wider European market (including Russia and Turkey) are reporting a 56% decrease.
With the industry operating at massively reduced capacity and hundreds of thousands of staff laid off or on salary support, restarting air travel is complex. It will require the need to bring aircraft and terminals back into service and marketing and ticketed services back online.
Commenting on how the Digital Green Certificate is a major step in the right direction, CEO of the European Travel Commission and Chairman of the European Tourism Manifesto Alliance, Eduardo Santander, said: “Time is of the essence now. We need a clear plan outlining conditions and timing to prepare for the safe restart of travel and tourism in Europe to be ready for the critical summer season 2021! Europe should work on this together leaving no place for fragmentation and unilateral actions.”
