His comments come following the reactions to China’s reopening of international travel on Monday (9 January), with the UK following a number of other countries – such as the US and Italy – in reimposing testing for arrivals from the country.

"It reminds us that many governments are still playing science politics when it comes to Covid-19 and travel," Walsh said.

"Epidemiologists, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control and others have said that the reintroduction of testing for travelers from China can do little to contain a virus that is already present around the world."

He urged governments to focus on using available tools to "manage Covid-19 effectively – including improved therapeutics and vaccinations – rather than repeating policies that have failed time and again" over the last three years.

It comes as Iata reports total traffic in November 2022 – measured in revenue passenger kilometers (RPKs) – rose 41.3% compared to November 2021 and global traffic is now at 75.3% of November 2019 levels.

European carriers’ November traffic climbed 45.3% versus November 2021 and capacity increased by 25.1%, with load factor up 11.6% to 83.6%, the highest among the regions.

International traffic rose 85.2% versus November 2021 and Asia-Pacific continued to report the strongest year-on-year results with all regions showing improvement compared to the prior year.

Domestic traffic for November 2022 was up 3.4% compared to November 2021 with travel restrictions in China continuing to dampen the global result.