“Time curbs on Indian travellers are lifted”

IATA Director General says data shows positivity rate is dropping

July 28, 2021 03:49 am | Updated 03:49 am IST - NEW DELHI

Latest data indicates it is time countries lifted restrictions imposed on Indian travellers during the second wave of COVID-19, Director General, International Air Transport Association, Willie Walsh has said.

“We have a lot of data that support removal of those restrictions. The positivity rate among travellers arriving from India to the U.K. between June 10 and June 30 was 1.2%. Data is showing that things are improving. Politicians are quick to put measures in place, but very slow to remove those restrictions. We urge them to look at the data,” Mr. Walsh said at an online press interaction on Tuesday.

The data from IATA shows that between April 8 and April 28, the positivity rate among travellers arriving from India to the U.K. was 8.92%, while the overall positivity rate for all travellers was much lower at 2.26%. Between June 10 and June 30, the positivity rate for Indian travellers dropped to 1.2%, whereas the overall positivity rate was 0.64%.

Countries like the U.S., U.K., UAE, Canada, Singapore and Hong Kong continued to have restrictions for travellers from India in April.

The DG said India must reopen international travel as well.

Mr. Walsh said that recovery in India was significantly impacted by the government's decision to cap air fares as well as restrict capacity to 65% of pre-COVID levels and that India was the biggest domestic market that was lagging behind in terms of recovery.

“Where the market is allowed to provide capacity that is justified by demand, you will see much greater capacity coming into the market than if you try to regulate it,” Mr. Walsh said.

He also said that it could take India until 2024 to return to traffic levels seen in 2019, as their ability to reintroduce all of the flying was significantly restricted due to reduction in fleet size, staff redundancies and weak balance sheets.

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