US closes borders.

[johnflightpath]

Due to Coronavirus, All flights from the European, mainland continent to the USA will be suspended from Midnight Friday 13th March. This will last for a period of 30 days . However, the UK will still be flying direct, at least for the time being.

Regards
John 'flightpath'.

[bulldog]

Well that’s going to make a big difference!! Everyone will travel to UK and hop on flights from UK. Hope our useless lot get some screening in place.

[Airbus A346]

Mar 12, 2020 9:18:43 GMT 1 bulldog said:

 Everyone will travel to UK and hop on flights from UK.

  ....... then get denied entry when they arrive in the USA.

 Agree with you, our lot are just dithering and procrastinating - we need some decisive action. Flights to and from Italy should have been stopped two weeks ago.

Airports here should be carrying out passenger temperature checks before boarding and on arrival.

[kuga59]

The perfect answer to the perfect BREXIT.
Close our borders to all!!!

[ronturner]

US border control will be on the lookout for passengers connecting at London and other UK airports.

[ian531]

I bet this will have big effect on some European airlines, the American routes must be a big money spinner for most airlines

Ian

[Beemer]

My 17 year old grandson plays for Everton Academy and was due to fly to the States in about three weeks for a big tournament and it has been cancelled today because a lot of the other teams are from Europe and they have been prevented from attending. He is gutted.

[northbynorthwest]

Passenger loads both within the USA and internationally to/ from the USA have fallen off the cliff, as it has elsewhere worldwide too. All the US carriers are actively reducing flying, and plans made a few days ago are being replaced with more draconian cuts. Example my employer, Delta. Pacific flying was planned to be reduced by 65 percent, and will likely be whacked still further. Domestically, they were talking of 15 percent cutbacks a few days ago, then around 30 percent yesterday. Today, they have just announced domestic cuts of 40 percent. Also going to park up to 300 aircraft - not sure of the make up of this yet, but I bet the MD88’s will go really soon. They will also be deferring all deliveries until further notice. All the carriers here as well as worldwide will have to follow suit. American, for example, are in quite a precarious position because of being very highly leveraged. Probably to get worse before it gets better - not just in the USA, but worldwide. It is going to be a very bleak year or more, and when things do normalise, it is going to be a slow recovery in the airline industry everywhere.

[loobyloo]

Just noticed AF022 cog- jfk tracking west of Ireland.

[crumb]

Just a question.if there is a travel ban in place today from 26 European countries, why are planes still flying from the large hubs to the USA? Tracking on FREEDAR/FR24/ADS-B.

[loobyloo]

That’s why I put on about the Air France flight could be interesting to see what happens.

[wadoki]

Obviously,a sensible,well thought out plan of action by the 'leader of the free world'.
If a plane is thought to be carrying a terrorist(or any Schengen passport holder)the F-16s will be sent.
Pilots will remove their bonedomes and don MAGA hats.

[northbynorthwest]

Mar 14, 2020 10:15:08 GMT 1 crumb said:

Just a question.if there is a travel ban in place today from 26 European countries, why are planes still flying from the large hubs to the USA? Tracking on FREEDAR/FR24/ADS-B.

KLM and Air France, and maybe other European carriers are continuing to fly to certain US airports which are able to handle vetting and testing of inbound passengers - including ability to isolate them if required. There are 13 airports approved - JFK, Dulles, Boston, Newark, Detroit, Chicago, Atlanta, Miami, Dallas, LAX, San Francisco, Seattle and Honolulu. They will be flying to these destinations for a few days to allow for US. Citizens and residents to return to the USA and (I think) to allow European residents to return back to Europe. I know Delta is flying almost a full schedule to European stations until Monday for exactly the same reason With this ban announced with little notice, people would have been stranded with no way of getting home for who knows how long. After Monday, Delta will only operate to Heathrow from Boston, JFK, Atlanta, Detroit and Seattle. Air France, etc will not be flying to the USA either after that point until further notice. I doubt if Delta will start flights to Manchester and Gatwick this summer , and probably the same with Glasgow and Edinburgh. Even if this virus ends tomorrow, people are going to be very slow to start booking and travelling. Maybe next summer, maybe even later.

[viscount]

Would the aircraft en route to the USA from mainland Europe at present just be carrying US citizens being 'repatriated' from Europe? It was mentioned on tv the other day that some of the flights to Britain from Italy are only carrying passengers where their resident address is in the UK.

[northbynorthwest]

Mar 14, 2020 11:22:22 GMT 1 viscount said:

Would the aircraft en route to the USA from mainland Europe at present just be carrying US citizens being 'repatriated' from Europe? It was mentioned on tv the other day that some of the flights to Britain from Italy are only carrying passengers where their resident address is in the UK.

Yes Viscount, that is all true. I know that there are many thousand US citizens and residents who are still in Europe who need to be repatriated. They will not be allowed to fly from anywhere within the Schengen countries back to USA after Monday, and will not be able to fly through the UK or Ireland enroute. It is very hard to try to keep up with all the changes in rules from both the USA and other countries. Every day sees more restrictions in place. Glad I don’t have to deal with that aspect of this, what a nightmare. In many ways, this feels similar to how it was after September 11th.