Expensive PCR tests to hurt airlines' recovery, Iata says
05 May, 2021
Pricey PCR tests could dissuade travellers from booking flights and hurt airlines' recovery, the Worldwide Air Transport Association said.
A PCR test would raise the cost of the average air fare by 45 to 90 per cent on a one-method ticket, with costs ballooning for two PCR tests on a return trip. This may severely impact family travelling, Iata explained on Tuesday.
"The real risk here's these prohibitive costs will prevent families from working out their freedom to travel, to visit friends, to have a holiday," Willie Walsh, Iata's director-standard said during an online press briefing on Tuesday. "As a society, we simply cannot allow a predicament to build up where only the wealthy can afford to visit again."
Iata's study of PCR check costs found in 16 countries showed wide variants between and within countries.
Pre-crisis, the common one-way airfare ticket including taxes and costs expense $200, Iata said, citing 2019 data.
A $90 PCR test raises the cost by 45 % to $290. Adding another test out on arrival would force up the one-way price by 90 per cent to $380, Iata explained. Let's assume that two tests happen to be needed in each way, the common cost for an individual return-trip could balloon from $400 to $760.
For families, the travel cost increase is even more severe. A quest for four that would have cost $1,600 pre-pandemic could practically double to $3,040 - $1,440 of which would be in testing costs - predicated on average ticket rates of $200 and common low-end PCR evaluating of $90 twice each approach.
Of the marketplaces surveyed, only France complied with the World Health Organisation's advice for the government to bear the cost of testing travellers, Iata said.
Among the rest of the 15 markets, the average bare minimum cost for testing was $90, as the average optimum cost was $208.
"People are appearing gouged by these large rates," Mr Walsh said. "Governments continue steadily to mandate these tests but are spending their big slice of the pie through VAT costs."
A lot of the PCR tests could be adequately replaced by Antigen tests that is equally effective regarding risk management and can be cheaper, he said.
Iata estimates you see, the cost of PCR testing to come to be $15, Mr Walsh said, pointing to "significant mark-ups".
Companies are taking advantage of the crisis, which is "unacceptable", he said.
Source: www.thenationalnews.com
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