The White House appears to have decided against requiring Covid-19 tests for domestic air travel.
"Reports that there is an intention to put in place new requirements, such as testing, are not accurate," White House press secretary Jen Psaki said during a Friday afternoon briefing.
Her remark came after CEOs of major U.S. airlines met virtually Friday with White House Covid-19 response officials. Psaki described that meeting as "brief."
Airlines, and the broader U.S. travel industry, have roundly opposed the testing proposal for domestic flights, which was floated by the CDC in late January and brought back up by DOT secretary Pete Buttigieg during appearances on the Feb. 7 Sunday talk shows.
Psaki announcement's Friday drew quick relief from U.S. Travel Association CEO Roger Dow.
"There is virtual unanimity across all sectors of the travel industry that a domestic testing mandate is not workable or warranted," Dow said. "U.S. Travel echoes the airlines' perspective and commends the administration for considering the broader travel industry's concerns about the science, data and negative consequences of a domestic testing mandate."
Runway to Recovery, a coalition of travel industry organizations, said this week that the implementation of international testing requirements on Jan. 26 has resulted in demand drops of 31% to 48%, depending on the market.
The group also argued that testing on international flights is manageable because there are currently less than 700 international departures per day. However, there are more that 12,200 domestic U.S. flights daily.
Implementing a domestic flight testing requirement, the coalition said, would require a 42% increase in U.S. testing capacity.