BARIG Calls for Urgent Harmonization of Travel Conditions in the Air Traffic Industry

Positive trends are currently to be witnessed within the travel and air traffic business; however, a steady recovery still remains a distant goal. Even though passenger traffic has increased again during vacation time in fall, the travel process as well as the vacation experience is still severely impaired by inconsistent regulations in different countries. Crucially, this is due to the states’ continuing uncoordinated approaches in key processes within the travel chain, such as entry and exit rules or the declaration of risk areas. The consequent lack of transparency leads to considerably more complex service processes, which might require more time and higher costs for companies and travelers. Accordingly, the Board of Airline Representatives in Germany (BARIG) points this out and appeals to the responsible politicians to support the urgently needed harmonization of travel conditions.

In this respect, BARIG Secretary General Michael Hoppe states: “Freedom of travel and mobility does not only belong to the most basic rights of people, but also plays an eminently important role in the recovery of national economies. Therefore, it is right to reopen borders successively given the previous good and successful efforts in fighting the pandemic. However, the lack of coordination among the different countries and states is slowing down the upswing in travel, with corresponding consequences for people and the economy. Thus, we call on politicians to push forward harmonization and coordination matters, which is in the interest of every country and their citizens.”

For that reason, BARIG strongly advocates:

• coordinated entry and exit rules

• harmonized recognition of vaccination, recovery, and testing certificates

• uniform declaration of risk areas

• coordinated, uniform rules for travel between the EU and other potentially opening third countries such as China, India, and others