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Investing.com – The European travel industry received a much-need boost Friday after U.S. President Joe Biden announced that his administration was reviewing when it can lift restrictions over the travel to the United States for European citizens.
“It’s in process now,” Biden said, talking about when restrictions could be lifted, adding that he expects to be able to answer “within the next several days what is likely to happen … I’m waiting to hear from our folks in our Covid team as to when that should be done.”
By 4:25 AM ET (0825 GMT), IAG (LON:ICAG), which owns British Airways, stock rose 1.7%, Deutsche Lufthansa (DE:LHAG) stock gained 1.6%, Air France KLM (OTC:AFLYY) stock rose 1%, travel agency Tui (DE:TUIGn) stock climbed 4%, airport Flughafen Zurich (SIX:FHZN) stock rose 1.4%, and Fraport (DE:FRAG) stock gained 2.2%. Dufry (OTC:DUFRY), the operator of airport duty-free shops, rose 2.1%.
European airports, airlines and travel companies have been hit hard by Covid-19 pandemic, losing all of last summer’s peak vacation season, The recent surge of Covid cases caused by the delta variant has threaten to wreak similar damage this year, even with a growing percentage of the continent’s population being vaccinated.
Airlines and others have urged the administration to lift restrictions covering most non-U.S. citizens given that many countries not subject to travel restrictions have far higher Covid-19 rates than many European countries covered by the restrictions in place since March 2020.
