Germany’s largest airline has suffered particularly from the breakdown in US business.
(Photo: dpa)
New York, Frankfurt 18 months after Donald Trump closed the borders for Europeans, his successor, US President Joe Biden, is now lifting the so-called Travel Ban. Vaccinated people from Europe and other countries will soon be able to re-enter the USA. According to the White House, the entry ban for foreigners entering from the Schengen area, Great Britain, China, Brazil and other countries will fall from the beginning of November.
There is currently an entry ban for people who have stayed in Germany or the other affected countries within a period of 14 days prior to their intended entry into the USA. Only US citizens, holders of a green card or certain exceptional groups in existential professions are currently allowed to travel to the USA from these countries.
With the decision, a unilateral regulation ends, which also separated thousands of German families and hit companies hard. Not only the airlines and the travel industry suffered from the measure. Industrial companies have recently had problems getting employees to work in the USA – whether for maintenance work or business appointments. Many positions remained vacant, and managers often advised local employees to stay in the country.
The US boss of BASF, Michael Heinz, made it clear to the Handelsblatt in August how big the problem was when he said that the lifting of the entry ban was at the top of his wish list to the American government.
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Observers had already expected at the beginning of the year that Biden would lift the entry ban. Trump had imposed the extensive entry ban at the beginning of the corona pandemic in March 2020, when the virus was particularly rampant in Italy.
Good news for Lufthansa
Various EU ambassadors and chambers of commerce had been campaigning for these rules to be lifted for months. But representatives of the US travel industry had long pushed for a relaxation for vaccinated people because they missed billions due to the missing travelers.
For Lufthansa, the news of the opening of the US borders to vaccinated Europeans comes at exactly the right time. The airline is currently starting a capital increase worth billions. Lufthansa boss Carsten Spohr spoke of a “big step out of the crisis” and called the end of the entry restrictions “excellent news for the transatlantic partnership”.
Together with the capital increase, there have now been “two essential steps to be taken on the way out of the crisis and the sustainable success of Lufthansa”. Investors apparently share Spohr’s optimism. Even the first reports about the imminent opening of the USA fueled the share price by more than eight percent.
But the courses of the two rivals Air France-KLM and IAG also increased. The large network airlines are heavily dependent on transatlantic traffic. “This would reopen one of the most important long-haul corridors for our airlines – after 18 months with significant restrictions,” wrote Daniel Röska from Bernstein Research in an initial statement.
For Germany’s largest airline, the North American routes were the most profitable until the beginning of the pandemic. Not only do many business travelers use the airline on these connections, the country is also popular with private travelers. CEO Spohr had actually hoped that this important market would be accessible again in September. Because of the rampant Delta variant, he had recently expected an opening at the beginning of the year.
The shares of the US airlines Delta, American and United also rose slightly on Monday in an overall very weak market environment.
More: “Can’t say whether the crisis will be over in 2024 or 2025” – Lufthansa boss warns despite good booking figures