Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - It was announced on Friday that the Biden administration will be lifting the requirement for international air travelers to the United States to take a COVID-19 test within a day before boarding their flights, regardless of vaccination status.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention determined that the mandate is no longer necessary for travelers, and it will expire on Sunday.
At this point, CDC will re-evaluate the need for testing requirements every 90 days, and that it could be reinstated if a troubling new variant of COVID-19 emerges.
While this has been a long-awaited announcement for travelers across the globe, it is also very good news for folks in the travel industry.
"We have travelers that have been waiting a long time for this to happen," said Director of Travel for AAA, Brian Murray. "Folks have been holding off traveling outside of the country because they didn't want to have to go through that testing upon return. So I think, to many, it's long overdue, and they're very excited to have this requirement lifted."
With the lifting of this travel mandate, Murray sees a potential for a number of people to start booking some long-awaited trips that have been held off for more than two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
"I think it's actually probably an initial influx of U.S. travelers wanting to maybe have that summer European vacation, that river cruise or that Mediterranean cruise that they wanted to travel on and didn't want to go through the challenges of testing and possibly having to isolate in Europe before they come back to the U.S.," Murray said. "So I think we'll see, certainly, an uptick in international travel, traveling from the U.S. to European destinations."
Not only is this announcement a positive for the travel industry going forward, but it is also good news for other industries like hospitality across the country and the world.
"It's been a long two years, there's huge pent up demand for travel, and while we are seeing international travel plans for this summer, I definitely think this will open up the opportunity for more, and we'll see an increase in bookings for Europe," Murray said.
With the easing of another one of the remaining government mandates meant to contain the spread of COVID-19, is this finally an indicator of a return to normalcy for travelers and others in the airline industry? Murray believes it's definitely another step in the right direction.
"When the airline industry lifted the mask mandate on airplanes, that was a step. We're taking baby steps along the way. This was actually kind of a huge step," he said. "There's still going to be challenges. Many countries still have some mandates in place for visiting museums or going into public places where masks are required and some testing, but recently, Italy has just lifted testing requirements to go into their museums and public buildings. So we are definitely seeing steps in the right direction. We're not out of the clear yet to total normalcy, but we're very excited that we're moving in that forward direction."
Hear more of our conversation with Murray in the player below:
