The United States cuts its ties with the Schengen area

From Friday 13 March will come into force on United States suspension for 30 days of any passenger arriving from theSchengen areaor having stayed in this area during the last 14 days. A measure initially applied to 26 countrieswhose FranceThese include Germany, Spain, Italy and Poland, as well as Iceland, Norway and Switzerland. Only American citizens present on European soil, as well as European Union nationals in possession of a permanent visa, will be authorised. However, they will be subject to a 14-day quarantine. Le United Kingdomwhich was flirting with 1,000 cases of coronavirus by 12 March (918 cases to be precise, including 16 deaths), was initially spared by the measure. It was a kind of "favour" granted by the American President to his staunch supporter, Boris Johnson. This is no longer the case: British travellers are now in the same boat as their European neighbours.

Rumours that the US administration would be restricting travel to Europe had been circulating for several days. Finally, the decision was made official on Wednesday evening by Donald Trumpon camera from the Oval Office. In a speech lasting around ten minutes, the American President spoke of " the most aggressive and comprehensive effort in modern history to deal with a foreign virus" adding " I am convinced that by continuing to take these tough measures, we will considerably reduce the threat to our citizens and succeed in defeat this virus quickly" . Donald Trump, on the other hand, criticised the management of the crisis on the other side of the Altnaltic: " L'European Union has not taken the same precautions and has not restricted travel from China and other hotspots". So it was a real "Friday the 13th" that the occupant of the White House announced, with the United States now faced with the coronavirus crisis with 1281 cases recorded including 36 deaths this Thursday morning. 

Banned from the United States, European companies have been "assessing" the situation since Thursday morningThe measure will of course have a serious impact on the airlinesAt the same time, there was already a sharp slowdown among carriers serving the transatlantic route. The 10 MarchAt a conference organised by J.P. Morgan in the United States, Scott Kirby, Chairman of United Airlines, said that demand between Europe and the United States was on the rise. decrease of 50% for the company, even before the new measures taken by the Trump administration. If we look at the latest adjustments made by American Airlines at the beginning of March, we see that the airline has cancelled or postponed virtually all its seasonal summer routes, such as Charlotte-Barcelona and Chicago-Venice. The carrier has also postponed the Paris-Miami to 3 June. American operated 17 routes between Europe and the United States in March, compared with 36 routes for Delta and 34 for United. The Schengen area airlines most at risk include Lufthansa Group (LH-EW-LX-OS-SN) with 45 routes, 29 of which are operated by Lufthansa alone, Air France-KLM with 23 routes (including 12 for Air France) and Aer Lingus with 15 connections.
According to OAG flight statistics for the week of 15 March as at 8 March, Air France will be the most exposed by this closure of American space with 116 weekly flights from Paris CDG and Orly to the United Statesahead of Delta with 71 weekly flights, American Airlines and United with 28 weekly flights each from Paris CDG. Air France has therefore reviewed its schedule, and plans to maintain services to Atlanta, Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles and New York JFK, San Francisco and Washington from 14 to 28 March 2020 inclusive. The airline is also awaiting clarification from the US authorities regarding flights to Miami, Boston and Houston.

Lufthansa has also decided to maintain its presence in the United States. " Despite the new travel guidelines ordered by the US administration on passengers from the European Union, Switzerland and other countries, the Lufthansa Group will continue to offer flights to the United States from Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Belgium." says the German group. Services to Chicago and Newark from Frankfurt and Zurich will be maintained, as will flights from Vienna to Chicago and Brussels to Washington. In addition, " passengers will still be able to reach all destinations in the United States via US hubs and connecting flights operated by partner airline United Airlines" says Lufthansa, which is nevertheless suspending all other flights, particularly from Munich, Düsseldorf and Geneva.

From his side, The Company will have to suspend all its flights from 19 March to 12 April inclusive, and is planning a daily return flight between Paris and New York from 13 April. In addition, the inauguration of the Nice - New York route, which was due to take place on 1 May, has been postponed by one month, to 1 June. " The unilateral decision by the President of the United States forces us to adapt quicklysays Christian Vernet, Chairman of La Compagnie. Thanks to the temporary grounding of our aircraft and the reduction in activity of some of our employees, we are reducing our costs to cope with the drop in activity. We hope to be back to normal by the end of May, and to return to the promising growth curve we had at the start of the year thanks to the arrival of our new A321neo "he adds.