Airline groups push back on Ebola declaration requirements

Interest groups representing major American and foreign airlines asked the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to reassess its new rules for foreign travelers over a record-breaking Ebola outbreak in Congo.

The CDC issued a mandate last week requiring that all travelers to the U.S. certify they have not been in Congo within 21 days before departure. To do so, all airline passengers and crew members on U.S.-bound flights — including American citizens — must file attestations before travel.

In separate letters to the CDC, first obtained by Reuters , the International Air Transport Association (IATA) and Airlines for America urged the agency to reconsider the requirements, which are set to take effect Nov. 3.

The IATA, which represents more than 370 member airlines across more than 130 countries, called the requirement for airlines to accommodate the collection of attestations in less than two weeks “unreasonable,” according to the Reuters report.

The group also questioned why the rules only applied to air travel, saying, “The U.S. government has clearly decided that the risk of the importation of Ebola into the United States is high enough to justify this global process. It is difficult to understand why ​other modes of transportation – maritime and ​surface – were not included ⁠in this mandate.”

In another letter, Airlines for America — which represents United, Delta and Southwest, among other U.S.-based airlines — echoed the IATA’s concerns.

“Changes to check-in systems, digital signatures, station procedures, and training cannot readily be completed in ​the allotted time,” the group said, per Reuters.

As of Oct. 19, the World Health Organization reported a total of 9,637 confirmed cases of the rare Bundibugyo virus in Congo, 4,646 of which resulted in death. As of Tuesday, according to government data, the number of infections had surpassed 10,000 — an escalation of the fastest-growing Ebola outbreak in the country’s history

The outbreak was declared in mid-May , months after it began spreading in a remote part of eastern Congo. The strain has spread to about seven provinces and neighboring countries , with Congo’s northeastern Ituri province remaining the epicenter.