Airlines for America and Iata said vaccinated travellers now pose no additional Covid risk to US citizens, stressing that the widespread presence of Covid-19 across the US – coupled with high levels of immunity and vaccination, and access to new treatments – meant it was safe to remove testing for fully vaccinated arrivals.

The coalition has urged the US government to follow the lead set by the EU and, in particular the UK, of which it said: "The UK concluded that the cost to both passengers and airlines of the testing mandate could no longer be justified as there was no evidence the regime protected the population from Covid-19."

"The experience of Omicron has made it clear travel restrictions have little to no impact in terms of preventing its spread," said Iata director general Willie Walsh. "Moreover, as Omicron is already broadly present across the US, fully vaccinated travellers bring no extra risk to the local population.

"International travellers should face no additional screening requirements than what is applied to domestic travel. In fact, at this stage of the pandemic, travel should be managed in the same way as access to shopping malls, restaurants or offices."