USA/EUROPE. Some 3.3 million airline seats are at risk of elimination from the market as a result of the US’ transatlantic travel ban on most non-US residents entering the country from much of Europe.
That’s according to a new report from travel analyst ForwardKeys. An initial 2 million seats were placed in jeopardy when President Donald Trump imposed a ban in response to the COVID-19 outbreak covering the Schengen area on 13 March. A further 1.3 million seats are now at risk as of midnight last night, with the ban extended to the UK and Ireland.
ForwardKeys expects Delta Air Lines and United Airlines to be the worst-affected airlines, losing around 400,000 seats each. They are followed by, in order, British Airways, American Airlines, Lufthansa, Virgin Atlantic, Air France, Aer Lingus, KLM and Norwegian.
In terms of countries, the UK is set to be worst hit, according to the analyst. It could lose more than a million seats. Germany is expected to lose around 500,000, with France (400,000), the Netherlands (300,000), Spain (200,000), Italy (100,000), and Switzerland (also around 100,000) following.
“Whilst a few flights are still operating, bringing permanent US residents and their immediate family back home, this is an unprecedented collapse in air travel,” said ForwardKeys VP Insights Olivier Ponti.
“In an incredibly short space of time, this ban has decimated the world’s busiest and most profitable segment of the aviation industry, transatlantic travel.”
