The US will end its COVID-19 testing requirement for people flying into the country as early as Sunday

• The CDC will lift its COVID-19 testing requirement for US-bound air passengers on Sunday.
• The White House said the decision will be reviewed after 90 days.

US-bound air travelers will no longer be required to test negative for COVID-19 before boarding their flights, the White House said Friday.

"We've made the progress that we need to make in having protocols in place around COVID that we can lift this requirement," National Economic Council Director Brian Deese said on CNBC. "I think that will be good news for business travel, good news for American commerce, American companies as well."

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will lift its travel restriction at midnight on Sunday, a senior White House official told CNN, which was first to report the news.

The move is based on the science and data, and will be evaluated over the next 90 days, according to Reuters, which independently reported story.

"If there is a need to reinstate a pre-departure testing requirement — including due to a new, concerning variant — CDC will not hesitate to act," the official said, per Reuters.

Current CDC policy requires travelers to test negative for COVID-19 no more than one day before travel to the US, and that they must show their test results to the airline before boarding. The requirement has no exception for citizenship or vaccination status.

Other pandemic measures have been rolled back in recent months, most notably the US mask mandate, which was struck down by a federal judge in April.

Industry leaders and scientific experts have argued for months that the current policy is out of date: American Airlines CEO Robert Isom said the testing requirement was "depressing" leisure and business travel, while Delta CEO Ed Bastian said dropping the rule will lead to a boost, Reuters reported. Both leaders said the vast majority of countries they serve do not have such a requirement.

"We know it will help induce and incent travelers to go abroad, bring more commerce in, more business in so hopefully they will get it done soon," Bastian said.

Nevada Sen. Catherine Masto told CNN the decision will give a much-needed lift to the recovering hospitality sector.

Meanwhile, COVID infections are once again on the rise in the US adding further scheduling and capacity complications to a busy summer travel season.