US to lift the UK and Europe Travel Ban

The US will reopen its borders to fully vaccinated arrivals from the UK and EU in early November, the White House has confirmed.

Non-US travellers will be required to show proof of full vaccination against Covid-19 as part of the new rules. They will also have to provide evidence of having tested negative for Covid-19 up to 87 hours prior to departure.

 

Unvaccinated arrivals will likely be subject to additional testing requirements, the White House has intimated.

 

White House Covid coordinator Jeffrey Zients confirmed early details of the US’s travel plan to national press outlets in the US on Monday afternoon (20 September).

 

The move will bring to an end what will by November be a 20-month ban on most travel to the US for non-US citizens. The ban was originally introduced by the Trump administration on 17 March 2020 in the early stages of the Covid crisis.

 

Prime minister Boris Johnson travelled to the US on Monday to discuss international travel arrangements with US president Joe Biden.

The World Travel and Tourism Council said the readmission of UK visitors to the US was a vital move.

 

Julia Simpson, WTTC president and chief executive, said: “The UK alone represents 8% of all inbound travel to the US, accounting for $40 million per day to the nation’s economy.

“WTTC has long been calling for the US to reopen and our research shows that by opening its borders to key markets such as the UK, it will pump $198 million back into the US economy every single day.”

Proof of how much the US ban has affected the UK travel industry is underlined by stats from Cirium.

 

They show that from 1 January to 19 September this year, the major airlines flew 8,380 one-way flights across the Atlantic, a 76% drop on the same period in 2019, which saw more than 35,000.

 

The ban led to the demise of Norwegian’s long-haul arm and led Virgin Atlantic to go running to the banks to seek refinancing. It also saw BA permanently axe two US routes, including Charleston.

 

The ban also meant the long-awaited debut of JetBlue’s transatlantic services was more low key, with the New York carrier launching Heathrow-JFK in August and immediately paring back its schedule.

 

JetBlue’s Gatwick launch, on 29 September will also be scaled back, with four flights a week, but the announcement from Washington is timely for the carrier.

 

The reopening will also boost new airline Norse Atlantic Airways, which had gambled on a relaxation of restrictions by early 2022 when Norse will use some of Norwegian’s former fleet to start US flights from Gatwick.

 

Before the announcement, tour operators had reported pent-up demand for the US, but mostly for 2022 and beyond, so the news will only add fuel to demand for next year. In the near term, the relatively small market for winter sports in the US will receive a boost, as will Caribbean cruise departures from Miami.

Germany lifts blanket travel warning but only 11 countries ‘open’

The German government lifted its ‘blanket’ warning against international travel on October 1, but foreign office advice against all but essential travel still excludes all but 11 countries.

The Berlin government will also impose 14-day quarantine restrictions on travellers arriving from most countries from October 15, with early release from self-isolation only for those who test negative for Covid-19 after five days.

Advice against non-essential travel routinely renders travel insurance invalid except where travellers are already abroad when the advice changes.

The German travel industry vowed to campaign against the new restrictions.

However, German health minister Jens Spahn urged people to “avoid unnecessary vacations abroad”.

Speaking on German TV, Spahn said the rising Covid infection rate in Germany involved people returning from holidays and said: “We can learn from this in terms of autumn, winter and Christmas.”

German foreign ministry advice against travel due to Covid does not just cover ‘high risk’ countries but also those considered a lower risk with restrictions of their own.

The government introduced a three-tier, traffic-light system of travel advice as it ended the blanket warning.

This categorises high-risk countries as ‘red’, those with lower rates of infection but restrictions in place as ‘amber’ for ‘wait before travel’, and low risk as ‘green’ signifying a low level of infection but with advice to ‘take special care’.

The ‘red’ category currently applies to 123 countries – including Spain and Belgium – and to parts of an additional 15 countries including most of France, Croatia and Turkey excluding ‘the Turquoise Coast’, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Conway Castle in North Wales.

The ministry also advises against travel to many European cities including Vienna, Amsterdam, Geneva, Budapest, Dublin and Lisbon.

Only nine of the 26 EU member states fall wholly in the green category and two outside the EU – Tunisia and Georgia.

Germany imposed a global travel warning in March but lifted it for most European countries in June.

The government temporarily introduced free Covid tests on arrival for travellers returning from ‘high-risk’ destinations but withdrew this in September because of the pressure on testing facilities when it also reissued warnings for travel in Europe.

Germany’s response to Covid and travel has been hailed in Britain as an example to follow, but from mid-October Berlin’s approach will be similar to the regime the UK government appears to be moving towards.

In the meantime, figures suggest the German travel market has had no better summer than the UK’s.

Two cruise lines regroup after Caribbean setbacks

Norwegian Sky outside Havana Port, Cuba.

Two cruise companies affected by sudden upsets in the Caribbean and Bahamas region are slowly regaining their footing.

For Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings (NCLH), the big blow was the abrupt end to U.S. cruises to Cuba in June. NCLH had bet heavily on Cuba's reopening, scheduling not only short cruises on its contemporary Norwegian Cruise Line brand but longer visits by its two premium brands, Oceania Cruises and Regent Seven Seas Cruises.

As detailed in a conference call with investors, the U.S. government decision to shutter Cuba with no advance warning hit NCLH third-quarter earnings big-time.

"Given the suddenness of the termination and the lack of lead time we had to make any meaningful fleet redeployment changes, the third quarter bears the largest negative earnings impact from the Cuba travel ban," said Frank Del Rio, the company's CEO.

The hit was more than $47 million.

Overnight, high yielding routes to Cuba for the Norwegian brand turned into low-yielding routes to the Bahamas. And several months later came Hurricane Dorian, which made its own dent in NCLH's earnings through cancelled sailings and reworked itineraries.

Del Rio said Norwegian plans to redeploy half of its Bahamas capacity to higher-yielding areas such as Alaska, the eastern Mediterranean and Asia, and will slowly get out from under the Cuba aftermath.

Even more impacted by Dorian than Norwegian was Bahamas Paradise Cruise Line, whose only destination is the Bahamas.

It suspended its two-day sailings to Grand Bahama for most of September, filling in the time by providing much-need relief and evacuation services.

The silver lining, of sorts, is that Dorian forced Bahamas Paradise into a new market, Nassau, which was not much affected by the storm. It now runs one of its ships from West Palm Beach to Grand Bahama and the other to Nassau.

Bookings for Nassau started slow, said Francis Riley, senior vice president of sales and marketing, but are now on par with those to Grand Bahama. Part of the attraction is the Cruise & Stay program where guest can vacation for two or four nights at one of four Nassau hotels:  Atlantis, The Melia, the Comfort Suites Nassau or the SLS Baha Mar.

Bahamas Paradise has a similar program in place on Grand Bahama with the Lucayan, which has reopened, and the Viva Wyndham, which plans to reopen Dec. 10.

Unlike Norwegian, Bahamas Paradise doesn't have plans to go elsewhere, and it is busy selling the Bahamas to Canadians and New Yorkers, who have just started getting the frosty temperatures they can look forward to until next spring.