The International Air Transport Association (IATA) called for governments to follow World Health Organization (WHO) advice and immediately rescind travel bans that were introduced in response to the Omicron variant of the coronavirus.

It said public health organizations, including the WHO, have advised against travel curbs to contain the spread of Omicron stating that "blanket travel bans will not prevent the international spread, and they place a heavy burden on lives and livelihoods."

"They can adversely impact global health efforts during a pandemic by disincentivizing countries to report and share epidemiological and sequencing data. All countries should ensure that the measures are regularly reviewed and updated when new evidence becomes available on the epidemiological and clinical characteristics of Omicron or any other variants of concern," the WHO said, as cited by IATA.

"Knee-jerk reaction" to Omnicron

"After nearly two years with COVID-19 we know a lot about the virus and the inability of travel restrictions to control its spread. But the discovery of the Omicron variant induced instant amnesia on governments which implemented knee-jerk restrictions in complete contravention of advice from the WHO—the global expert," said Willie Walsh, IATA’s Director General.

IATA then urged governments to reconsider all Omicron measures.

"The goal is to move away from the uncoordinated, evidence absent, risk-unassessed mess that travelers face. As governments agreed at ICAO and in line with the WHO advice, all measures should be time-bound and regularly reviewed. It is unacceptable that rushed decisions have created fear and uncertainty," Walsh added.

The industry group then demand that governments implement the multilayer risk management commitments for international civil aviation that they have made through ICAO.

"Despite this clear commitment, very few governments have addressed early over-reactions to Omicron. With the European CDC already signaling that a de-escalation of measures will likely be needed in the coming weeks, governments must urgently put actions behind the commitments that they made at ICAO," Walsh said.

European Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (ECDC) in the latest update to its Threat Assessment Brief on the implications of Omicron in Europe notes that "given the increasing number of cases and clusters in the EU/EEA without a travel history or contact with travel-related cases, it is likely that within the coming weeks the effectiveness of travel-related measures will significantly decrease, and countries should prepare for a rapid and measured de-escalation of such measures."

"Once a measure is put in place, it is very challenging to get governments to consider reviewing it, let alone removing it, even when there is plenty of evidence pointing in that direction," Walsh said.

"That is why is it essential that governments commit to a review period when any new measure is introduced. If there is an over-reaction—as we believe is the case with Omicron—we must have a way to limit the damage and get back on the right track," the IATA chief added.

Just last week, IATA called various government's response to the new Covid-19 Omicron variant as a "knee-jerk reaction" and warned that the imposition of travel bans by governments, against the advice of the WHO, could threaten the sector’s recovery.

"October’s traffic performance reinforces that people will travel when they are permitted to. Unfortunately, government responses to the emergence of the Omicron variant are putting at risk the global connectivity it has taken so long to rebuild," Walsh said then.

Curtailing passenger flights would mean that capacity for air cargo would also remain tight and rates, elevated.