Frankfurt / New York (dpa) – If the corona-related US entry ban for Europeans is lifted this Monday (November 8), the hour of truth will strike for European air traffic.
With the entry allowed again after 20 months for fully vaccinated and additionally tested EU passengers, the corona lull that has persisted since March 2020 is to end. The airlines are reporting strong advance bookings and hope that business travelers and private individuals alike will have a lot of catching up to do. In the USA, airports and the tourism industry are preparing for the return of European guests.
The importance of the North Atlantic market for Lufthansa and the other European network carriers Air France-KLM and British Airways can hardly be overestimated. In the past, the big three shared the market to a very large extent together with their respective joint venture partners from the USA. Lufthansa, for example, cooperates with United and Air Canada and in normal times does around half of its long-haul business over the Atlantic. Neither state-subsidized golf airlines nor too many low-cost airlines disturbed the lucrative circles. Most recently, Norwegian’s long-haul business model failed.
Bookings go up again
Lufthansa had only briefly interrupted its US flights in the first corona shock. US citizens, diplomats, Turks, Arabs and people from other nations were no longer subject to the entry ban announced by Donald Trump, and the expensive freight also provided profit margins. If the EU citizens join them, bookings will rise to a good 80 percent of the pre-crisis level, according to Lufthansa.
In addition to the pent-up demand of private travelers, experience with US companies shows that business trips are also coming back much more strongly than expected, explained Lufthansa boss Carsten Spohr. As a result, the crane group starts with 200 flights a week to 17 different US destinations. You fly to Chicago more often than to all destinations in India and China combined, said Spohr.
In the pre-crisis year 2019, the Lufthansa network airlines carried a good 12.3 million passengers in the America traffic region. The proceeds amounted to 7.1 billion euros, a third of the total traffic turnover. Nowhere did the group sell more seat kilometers (95 billion) with a very high occupancy rate of 85.5 percent.
Florida and Honululu are trendy
With the new entry rules, the first Lufthansa jets will leave Frankfurt Airport for Miami and New York on Monday morning at 9:50 a.m. and 10:50 a.m. Singapore Airlines makes the first start of the day to the USA at 8:20 a.m. This is followed by United at 8:40 a.m. to Chicago and at Condor at 11:15 a.m., a Boeing 767, which is brought forward by three days, also to New York. In winter, the holiday airline regularly heads for New York on the east coast and Seattle on the west coast, where partner airlines continue to transport passengers. Florida and Honolulu are trendy, says Condor spokeswoman Magdalena Hauser, who has announced a major US program for the summer of 2022.
Aviation expert Gerald Wissel initially expects strong demand. “There is a lot of catching up to do, and the companies will also send their people back to the USA so as not to lose their customers there.” In the past few weeks, Lufthansa boss Spohr has never tired of conjuring up a quick and permanent return to business travel.
At the same time, for various reasons, the airlines could hold back from expanding their services again quickly. There is a lack of operational jets and crews. “Starting that up again is highly complex and time-consuming,” says Airborne consultant Wissel. He therefore expects the companies on both sides of the Atlantic to spy on each other and, if in doubt, use smaller aircraft that can be filled more easily. The ticket prices then initially remained rather high. However, the airlines must not lose sight of the competition in the Middle East and Turkey, especially with passengers between Asia and North America.
US airlines also facilitated the end of the entry stop
The US airlines were able to cushion the crisis better than some European rivals because of their large domestic market, but here too the end of the entry ban is a great relief. “After the White House announcement, we saw an immediate increase in flight bookings in several of our key international markets,” said American Airlines’ top manager Robert Isom recently in a call with investors. Bookings to Great Britain had increased almost overnight by 66 percent and those to core Europe by 40 percent. “There is clearly a lot of pent-up demand,” said Isom.
Other large US airlines such as Delta and United are also hoping for a boost. According to experts, however, companies will initially remain cautious and cautious – also in view of staff shortages and logistical challenges. “The leading indicators suggest that the US airlines are not planning to significantly increase their capacities in view of the reopening of the transatlantic market in the coming week,” says John Grant from the analysis company OAG.
The German airport association ADV also considers the revitalization of the US market to be crucial and refers to the more than 10 million passengers annually who traveled between Germany and the USA before the pandemic. Managing Director Ralph Beisel sees the greatest need for action in a fully digitized global standard for checking the state of health in order to be able to cope with the number of passengers.