Airlines Forced To Adjust To European Travel Restrictions

Airlines – both in the U.S. and Europe – are making adjustments and cancellations in the wake of European Union recommendations regarding new, more stringent travel requirements on Americans.

The EU announced last week it was recommending that the United States be removed from its 27-country “safe list” for accepting foreign travelers.

The announcement was just a recommendation; all EU countries must decide for themselves on restricting travelers.

Which is just what the Netherlands did last week when it announced it will only allow vaccinated Americans to visit with a recent negative COVID-19 test — along with a mandatory 10-day quarantine that can be shortened to five days subject to a strict testing regimen.

Within a day, KLM, the national carrier of the Netherlands, issued a statement saying in part, “The decision by the Dutch government is a big step backwards.”

KLM said it will cancel service from Amsterdam to Orlando, Miami and Las Vegas – three routes that, The Points Guy noted, were already going to be discontinued anyway from a seasonal standpoint from Oct. 31, 2021, through March 26, 2022.

U.S. carriers American, Delta and United all fly multiple daily flights to Amsterdam and have not yet announced any schedule changes or cancellations.

It’s likely that they will, however. With school back in session and fall and winter looming, travel to Europe is likely to dip anyway.

Other European airlines are also taking a cautious approach.

“There’s a risk that the really good late summer traffic we’ve seen could be a bit illusionary,” Nick Cunningham, an analyst at Agency Partners in London, told Bloomberg News Service. “With kids going back to school, and the likelihood that could bring a flare-up in cases, winter is looking much more uncertain for the airlines.”