The World Health Organization on 5 May declared that Covid-19 is no longer a public health emergency, lifting a designation in place since 2020 that signals a turning point in public response to the disease as governments continue lifting travel restrictions intended to halt the spread of the pandemic. The United Nations health organisation says that declining death and infection rates of the disease mean that "it is time to transition to long-term management of the Covid-19 pandemic," notably still labelling it a pandemic. "Covid-19 is now an established and ongoing health issue which no longer constitutes a public health emergency of international concern," the WHO says. Governments restricted international travel, required mandatory tests or enforced mask-wearing rules following the WHO emergency declaration for Covid in 2020. Lifting this designation is poised to enable political support for governments loosening rules for travel sectors. The US federal government is set to end its public health emergency for Covid on 11 May. These regulatory shifts are likely to encourage more travel to the USA and other nations as carriers prepare for summer flights.

The US Federal Aviation Administration has proposed an air traffic plan for a new generation of electric aircraft being certificated as the agency seeks to develop networks for the nascent urban air mobility sector to start small and eventually grow. The initial blueprint outlined in a federal report filed on 26 April by the FAA NextGen programme says that "operations will begin at a low rate with air taxis flying much as helicopters do today". Electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft would "use existing routes and infrastructure such as helipads and early vertiports" and pilots of those aircraft would "communicate with air traffic controllers where required", the FAA says. Numerous start-ups developing propeller-driven eVTOLs have already begun partnerships with infrastructure and real estate companies to plan vertiports and charging stations to support these electric aircraft. Once certificated, these new urban air mobility aircraft would operate within what the agency calls "UAM corridors". "The complexity of the corridors could increase over time from single one-way paths to routes serving multiple flows of aircraft flying in both directions," FAA says. "Over time, these corridors could link an increasing number of routes between vertiports." Standards introduced by the FAA would have a good chance of being considered or imitated by regulators in other nations, which have already shown interest in co-validating certification for aircraft proposed by several start-ups.

The US Department of Transportation (DOT) has raised the quota for Chinese carriers operating passenger flights for to the USA to 12 weekly roundtrips. The increased quota "will be equivalent to the total number of flights permitted by the PRC [People's Republic of China] aviation authorities for US carriers", DOT says in a statement provided on 3 May. The agency adds that it will "continue to assess how and when to further modify its posture towards PRC carrier flights in a manner that offers a competitive operating environment for the air carriers in the US." It highlights that American Airlines, Delta and United Airlines, which currently operate flights between the USA and China, are each approved to operate four weekly roundtrip flights. On 10 March the USA scrapped its Covid testing requirement for travellers departing from China, which were imposed in January amid a spike of Covid-19 infections in the country. Schedules data shows that Chinese carriers currently operating passenger flights to the USA – Air China, China Southern, Xiamen Airlines and China Eastern – have barely cracked double-digit weekly roundtrip flights since April 2020. The data shows that three years on, in April 2023, the same four Chinese carriers flew a total of eight weekly roundtrips, a similar level to the three US carriers, which together operated 10 weekly roundtrip flights to and from Shanghai Pudong International airport. These flights are just a fraction of the 222 and 133 roundtrip flights operated by Chinese and US carriers, respectively, in April 2019. In April, United Airlines had scheduled a four-times weekly service to San Francisco, Delta twice weekly each to Detroit and Seattle, and American Airlines to Dallas/Fort Worth. China Eastern operated a twice weekly service on Shanghai-New York JFK; Xiamen Airlines twice weekly between Los Angeles and Xiamen; China Southern weekly between Guangzhou, and Los Angeles and New York JFK; and Air China, from Beijing and Shenzhen to Los Angeles.