Communicable diseases and pandemics have important implications for airlines and their customers. On this page you will find resources for airlines and other travel professionals medical crews. 

COVID-19

IATA is closely monitoring developments related to the COVID-19 pandemic in coordination with the World Health Organization (WHO) Secretariat, ICAO and the US Centers for Disease Control.

COVID-19: Air Travel, Public Health Measures and Risk: A Brief Summary of Current Medical Evidence This document provides a brief summary of current medical evidence at the current time 

Operational guidelines from WHO 

Operational considerations for managing COVID-19 cases or outbreak in aviation (pdf) 

IATA resources and guidance

Please see our COVID-19 resources for airlines and air transport professionals page 

Other Communicable Diseases

Measles 

Measles is still common in many parts of the world including some countries in Europe, Asia, the Pacific and Africa. Anyone who is not protected against measles is at risk of getting infected when traveling internationally.

For more information, please see the WHO advisory on Measles.

Ebola

There have been separate outbreaks of Ebola virus disease since February 2021 in both Democratic Republic of the Congo (North Kivu province) and in Equatorial Guinea. For now, this situation doesn’t impact international air travel.

Emergency response

Based on the experience with different outbreaks, IATA has produced an Emergency Response Plan and Action Checklist (pdf), for use by air carriers in the event of a public health emergency.​​

An important part of this plan involves a series of guidelines and best practices for airline staff in the event of public health emergencies.