There is both positive and negative news. Earlier this summer, travel corridors and testing procedures brought a cautious resumption of leisure travel, with some UK tourists managing to sneak in a cross-border holiday when quarantine restrictions were lifted for a number of European countries.

However, the fragility of the situation was fast revealed, with international travel turning into a game of quarantine roulette that’s only serving to further reduce traveller confidence. Spain was removed from the UK’s list of safe destinations, soon followed by France, and most recently Croatia, Austria and Portugal.

And yet, amid the uncertainty, frequent flyers are ready to return to the skies as soon as restrictions are lifted and it’s safe to do so. A recent global survey of 22,000 frequent flyers in the Priority Pass programme found nearly three in four frequent flyers (71%) are ready to return to travel either immediately or within the next three to six months.

The pandemic has changed travel while also revealing its value, and a huge number of people are eager to get back to it. Travel drives cultural education and awareness; it connects communities and people, and encourages innovation.

And while frequent travellers understand the need for restrictions, there are still important steps that can be made to further restore their confidence, enable them to travel safely, and improve the experience.

Frequent flyers are the travel lovers who go abroad every long weekend they can, the business travellers constantly flying for work, and the digital nomads for whom work and travel are one and the same. They know their way around more than a handful of international airports, they expect a comfortable and premium experience before the flight takes off, and are well-versed in how to earn points and miles along the way.

At the same time, Covid-19 has changed what frequent flyers want and need. The Priority Pass survey found unpredictable factors such as quarantines and border controls represent frequent flyers’ top concern about returning to air travel – 74% identified this as a worry, and accordingly, half of them are willing to pay for a Covid-19 test to help reduce quarantine mandates.

When queried about which measures would make them feel most confident about future air travel, testing at the airport was singled out as the top driver of confidence.

Delivering on frequent flyer needs by safely easing restrictions will necessitate a broad and collaborative industry strategy including airport PCR testing, such as the UK’s first test-on-arrival pilot programme recently spearheaded by Collinson and Swissport for Heathrow airport, including a dedicated state-of-the-art test-on-arrival facility now ready for use in Heathrow’s Terminal 2, subject to government approval.

If even some travel can safely restart, this could have a major impact on people’s livelihoods and the economy. Iata expects global airline losses to top US $84 billion in 2020, endangering some 25 million jobs in aviation and related sectors.

The fact most frequent flyers are prepared to return to air travel within the next half-year or even sooner is encouraging, and could turn out to be an essential lifeline for the global aviation and tourism sectors.

If governments, airports and the travel industry can collectively take the right steps to restart travel safely with reduced quarantine requirements, we may see a near-normalisation of air travel far sooner than many predictions that set out recovery taking as long as until 2023.

In the short term, and at the very least, it could prove to be a welcome boost to ailing consumer travel booking confidence. The closing and opening of travel corridors in recent months indicates travel’s recovery will not be a straight line.

In this evolving landscape, frequent travellers won’t regain their confidence unless they can see their expectations are being understood and catered to – such as access to testing that will enable the safe avoidance of quarantine periods.

If frequent flyers can get access to the right travel experience, they will return to the skies when it’s safe and encourage others to do the same, championing and leading the travel recovery for all.

Andy Besant is director of travel experiences at airport services provider Collinson, which is working with Swissport and Heathrow on the UK’s first airport testing facility.