Iata pointed to advice from the World Health Organization (WHO), which stated last week that “blanket” travel bans do not prevent the international spread of Omicron.
Willie Walsh, Iata’s director general, added: “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.”
