The Schengen Area ban on non-resident travel to the United Sates is expanding to include the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland, effective Monday evening.
Vice President Mike Pence shared the news at a press conference earlier this afternoon. The ban will go into effect Monday evening at 11:59PM EDT. Flights can (and will) continue to operate from the United Kingdom and Ireland after Monday, but likely be greatly reduced, as is planned for flights to most other western European nations.
This was not exactly a surprise, as President Donald Trump had warned yesterday that “numbers have gone up fairly precipitously over the last 24 hours” in the UK and Ireland.
European nations were caught off-guard by Trump’s Oval Office address on Wednesday night. In a joint statement, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Charles Michel expressed disproval of the U.S. move:
“The European Union disapproves of the fact that the US decision to improve a travel ban was taken unilaterally and without consultation.”
There’s no word whether the UK or Ireland was made aware of the decision prior to the public announcement by Pence.
Expect flights from London and Dublin to be quite full over the next couple days, ahead of the Monday evening restriction. Remember, Schengen Area, Irish, and British citizens are not banned from the USA. Rather, those non-resident aliens who have been in the Schengen Area, Ireland, or the UK over the last 14-days will not be allowed in.
CONCLUSION
I’m heading for London as we speak. I’ll report firsthand on what Heathrow is like tomorrow…
> Read More: USA Bans European Travel For 30 Days
Guess it was a bit too on the nose that he originally excluded the only two countries/regions where he had golf resorts
This is leading to only one thing: A worldwide grounding of all fights and cross border travel for 30 days. Especially if there are any sorts of new spikes emerging out of China or rest of Asia.
There’s a reason that a private jet firm has reported an unprecedented 30% increase the past week in its wealthiest clients and celebrities using their services to get to remote vacation homes and secluded islands.
Truly, we are teetering on this becoming global anarchy. First the wealthy escape. After that, political leaders. All that will be left is looting on the streets, violence, and black market toilet paper.
Your tin foil hat looks mighty fine today…
Thank you, It’s Burberry. I bought that, a gun, and a good pair of boots to go with it. We are all going to need them.
Can you please help effected passengers by writing a post about TAP Air Portugal’s unfriendly COVID-19 policy? They are refusing to issue refunds (https://www.flytap.com/en-us/latest-updates?accordionid=1) for effected passengers flying to/from USA. Only willing to change for free + pay fare difference + several other restrictions.