Posted on Oct 13, 2021 4:10 PMUpdated Oct 13, 2021, 5:39 PM
The US government is playing on the nerves of tens of thousands of travelers, who are waiting for entry restrictions to be lifted to return to the United States. Announced at the end of September by a spokesperson for the White House, the lifting of the “travel ban” for vaccinated travelers arriving from Europe by plane, is still scheduled for early November, after eighteen months of virtual closure. But at fifteen days of the month of November, no precise date has yet been set, nor the sanitary entry conditions that will be required.
An incomprehensible situation which leaves in uncertainty the travelers coming from Europe who planned to take advantage of the holidays of All Saints to go to the United States. Not to mention the airlines that had added additional flights from 1is November. Some big events like the New York Marathon on November 7 could also suffer.
Puzzle for airlines
“In uncertainty, we risk having to regulate the flights planned in the first days of November”, deplores the president of the French company French Bee, Marc Rochet, who had inaugurated a service to New York from Orly this summer . “We will have to reduce the offer in New York if the athletes cannot make it to the marathon,” he explains. We also wonder if we should continue to go through Canada to go to Tahiti, because we cannot be sure of being able to go to San Francisco. “
According to a spokesperson for the United States Embassy in Paris, reached by telephone on Wednesday, an announcement from the American government will be made “soon” to set the date for the reopening of the borders, for passengers arriving by plane, as well as for those entering by land, from the borders of Canada and Mexico, also closed.
An American announcement “soon”
This announcement will also specify the types of vaccine required in order to enter the United States without special authorization or compelling reason. “As soon as we have the information, we will announce it on the embassy’s Twitter account,” said the spokesperson. But for the time being, and until notice to the contrary, the “travel ban” remains in force for travelers from France and other countries in the Schengen area, and could extend into the first days of November.
An extension next month would be all the more disastrous given that the announcement of the lifting of US restrictions in November immediately sparked an explosion in bookings from Europe in the first days of November. All the airlines followed by adding more flights, starting with Air France, which achieved 40% of its long-haul turnover in the United States before the crisis. “We will return to a hundred flights per week [sur les Etats-Unis, NDLR] from November, ”announced Air France CEO Anne Rigail on September 29.
“The passengers understood that the reopening would be for the 1is November, explains a company spokesperson. We have therefore increased capacity to meet demand. But for now, we do not see a wave of cancellations, all our tickets are still flexible. [avec la possibilité de reporter ou d’annuler sans frais, NDLR]. And despite the sharp increase in reservations in France, sales on transatlantic flights are still largely driven by American customers ”.
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