Air travel back to pre-Covid days?

Muscat: Based on the decisions of the Supreme Committee, the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has issued guidelines to all passengers and aircraft operators in the Sultanate of Oman on the following:

Passengers who received two doses of any approved vaccine are accepted to travel to the Sultanate of Oman without presenting the COVID-19 PCR test result taking lino consideration that the second dose has been received at least before 14 days.

This decision is effective from Tuesday from March 1.

Meanwhile, with several countries easing travel restrictions, especially for vaccinated travelers, the ITA has reported a jump in ticket sales.

Several destinations are open to vaccinated travelers without quarantine or pre-departure testing requirements.

“Vaccinated travelers have the potential to travel much more extensively with fewer hassles than even a few weeks ago. This is giving growing numbers of travelers the confidence to buy tickets. And that is good news. Now we need to further accelerate the removal of travel restrictions. While recent progress is impressive, the world remains far from 2019 levels of connectivity. Thirteen of the top 50 travel markets still do not provide easy access to all vaccinated travelers,” said Willie Walsh, IATA’s Director-General.

“Momentum toward normalizing traffic is growing. Vaccinated travelers have the potential to travel much more extensively with fewer hassles than even a few weeks ago. This is giving growing numbers of travelers the confidence to buy tickets. And that is good news! Now we need to further accelerate the removal of travel restrictions. While recent progress is impressive, the world remains far from 2019 levels of connectivity. Thirteen of the top 50 travel markets still do not provide easy access to all vaccinated travelers. That includes major economies like China, Japan, Russia, Indonesia, and Italy,” said Willie Walsh, IATA’s Director-General.

IATA continues to call for removing all travel barriers (including quarantine and testing) for those fully vaccinated with a WHO-approved vaccine,

Enabling quarantine-free travel for non-vaccinated travelers with a negative pre-departure antigen test result,

Removing travel bans, and, accelerating the easing of travel restrictions in recognition that travelers pose no greater risk for COVID-19 spread than already exists in the general population.

“Travel restrictions have had a severe impact on people and on economies. They have not, however, stopped the spread of the virus. And it is time for their removal as we learn to live and travel in a world that will have risks of COVID-19 for the foreseeable future. This means putting a stop to the singling out of the traveling population for special measures. In nearly all cases, travelers don’t bring any more risk to a market than is already there. Many governments have recognized this already and removed restrictions. Many more need to follow,” said Walsh.

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