Travel bosses are calling on the US government to urgently speed up approval of the UK’s AstraZeneca vaccine to help restore vital transatlantic air routes.
The Centre for Disease Control (CDC), the main health authority in the US , this week approved the Pfizer vaccine, however it still does not currently recognise AstraZeneca as an approved Covid-19 vaccine.
Even if the Biden Administration allows borders to reopen, the non-recognition of AstraZeneca will be a significant barrier to transatlantic travel between the UK and the US.
Now, the World Travel & Tourism Council ( WTTC ), which represents the global travel and tourism private sector, claims America will effectively remain off-limits to the majority of British visitors – and many millions more around the world – who are vaccinated with the AstraZeneca drug.
AstraZeneca has the largest global reach of all current vaccines and has currently been administered across 176 countries and territories, highlighting the importance of its approval in the US.
US carrier JetBlue recently launched its first transatlantic flights from New York to London, while Aer Lingus, British Airways, Virgin Atlantic and American Airlines are all due to add new routes or extra capacity to cater to increased demand from the USA to the UK.
According to travel and data analytics expert Cirium, UK-US flights scheduled for the last week of August have plunged by 73 per cent compared to the same period in 2019, before the pandemic.
Total seats available over this period have collapsed from a high of 287,000 in 2019 to a mere 78,000 in 2021.
Virginia Messina, WTTC senior vice president, said: “It’s crucial the US authorities step forward to formally approve the AstraZeneca vaccine as a matter of urgency to enable cross-border mobility and the return of transatlantic travel between the UK and U.S.
“Unless they give it the green light then the US will effectively remain closed to the vast majority of UK visitors and the many millions around the world who are double-jabbed with the AstraZeneca vaccine.
“This will leave airlines, cruise lines, tour operators, hotels and the entire travel and tourism infrastructure, which depends upon transatlantic travel, in significant trouble for the foreseeable future.
WTTC warns that the current CDC approval process could take months to give AstraZeneca the all clear.
It also fears that if the US rounded on a policy which only approved the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) vaccines, this would prevent millions of travellers from visiting America, the third most popular destination for travellers in the world.
WTTC recently warned that the restart of international travel could be seriously delayed without worldwide reciprocal recognition of all approved COVID-19 vaccines
It has also pressed the UK government to bear the cost of PCR tests for fully jabbed citizens, which continues to deter Britons from travelling.
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