The United States will not lift travel bans for the time being. That is the outcome of a government meeting about this, an insider reported to the Reuters news agency. The Joe Biden administration is very concerned about the delta variant.

Partly due to this variant, the number of infections has recently increased again in the US. Moreover, vaccination is becoming slower and slower, because many Americans do not (yet) want to be vaccinated. Vaccination coverage is lagging behind, especially in the South and Midwest.

The government fears that the number of infections will increase even further if, for example, Europeans can go on holiday in the country again, and therefore does not think it wise to abolish the entry ban. Besides Europeans, Chinese and Indians are also not welcome.

The news has yet to be officially confirmed, but this is likely to be another blow to the aviation industry. Airlines have lobbied intensively in Washington to abolish this travel restriction. So far this seems to have been unsuccessful.

Americans are welcome in the European Union, for example for a holiday, so for the time being the transatlantic airlines will have to rely mainly on American customers. That is not enough to properly fill the planes again.

--- DB4 - Jul 07 2021
* Origin: AVIATION ECHO HQ (2:292/854)