traveller at European airport faced chaos , surging price , and uncertainty as they scrambled to react to Donald Trump ’s Wednesday promulgation that severe restrictions would be bring down on travel from the continent to the U.S.—made significantly tough by aseries of bull claimsmade by the president during his address .
The presidentexplicitly statedduring the speech that as of Friday , “ all ” travelling from Europe to the U.S. other than from the UK would be banned due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic , which he largely blamed on Europe rather than serious U.S. unpreparedness under his watch . In realism , the travelling restrictions only practice to strange subject who are not exempt and who had spent any of the last 14 days in the Schengen Area , a grouping of 26 European country with mutually open borders .
From there US citizen , permanent house physician and others with position allowing entry will be ask to self - quarantine for 14 day .
Crowds at Roissy Charles de Gaulle Airport near Paris, France on 19 January 2025.Photo: Thibault Camus (AP)
— Kris Van Cleave ( @krisvancleave)March 12 , 2020
The White House only clarified this after the reference and as many people , including U.S. citizen , were panicking and trying to make return organization before March 13 go . Even U.S. ambassadors werereportedly caught off guardby the address , having not receive any anterior warning , as was the State Department , which was n’t told specifics .
Anna Grace , a U.S. student in Europe flying home from Madrid ’s Barajas airport , told Reuters that“It caused a good deal terror . ” Gregory and Ada Goldberg , two Americans trying to expedite a flight from Barcelona to San Francisco , told the connection , “ This was meant to be two weeks of pleasant holiday but it has become a incubus . ”
New York Times newsman Mike McIntire twitch other Thursday morning ( eastern time ) that Roissy Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris was a disaster , with some mass shelling out up to $ 20,000 for remaining seats to stateside before Friday . Many traveller were not aware of the White House ’s post - address department of corrections and believed that they would be forbid from boarding flight of stairs or deny launching when they arrived in the United States , according to McIntire . Airlines with U.S. flights were reportedly ineffectual to keep up with a flood of customer service requests . The only bright spot was that aviation locomotion from people not bucket along to enter the U.S. has alreadyplummeted .
2/ I know because I ’m one of them . Was awakened at 2:15 am Paris time by a interested congenator in America tell “ Trump just censor all travel from Europe ! ” Turning on telly , I go through that indeed appeared to be so .
— Mike McIntire ( @mmcintire)March 12 , 2020
4/ count at buy completely newfangled slate for today or Friday and run into prices rise and tickets disappearing before my eyes . fear the worst if we did nothing , I pulled the trigger on fresh tag that cost more than my monthly mortgage payment .
6/ Now we have tickets for two flight to NYC : our original one on Saturday and a new one for today . give-up the ghost online and tried to at least scratch the Saturday escape ( see above tweet for details on how that went ) .
airport across the world are empty as#coronavirusbecomes a major crisis for the locomotion industriousness . More via@businesshttps://t.co / atwgnhiQJ8pic.twitter.com/0ApjIIRhzF
— Bloomberg Originals ( @bbgoriginals)March 12 , 2020
Travelers at Madrid ’s Barajas aerodrome scramble to board flights to the U.S. before the travel forbidding from Europe goes into result at midnight on Fridayhttps://t.co/G8AN6RPW0opic.twitter.com/MALooEzKb9
— Reuters ( @Reuters)March 12 , 2020
“ I see Americans crying at the airport right now worried about their jobs and coming home , ” Berkeley , California man Muhammed Alameldin , who was trying to fly back to the U.S. from Barcelona with his groom-to-be Monique Sanchez , tell NBC News . “ … My flying was cancel and I ’ve been in line for over three hr waiting to transfer or get a voucher for my flight . No one has heard or seen anything thus far . It ’s a bankruptcy in U.S. policy and shows that the president does n’t know how to take guardianship of Americans afield . ”
v full and maybe “ last certain ” flight from Berlin to New York 👀 pic.twitter.com/39mCtVR1pm
— Shannon Ho ( @ShanMHo)March 12 , 2020
NBC News diarist Shannon Ho confirmed another frenzied scene at Berlin - Tegel Airport in Germany , saying there was “ Lots of helter-skelter energy in Tegel right now . ” Ho spill with traveller who had attempt to reschedule escape at 3 a.m. , slue trips short by week , and ascertain out about Trump ’s promulgation in the middle of nightlife , consort to NBC . The web wrote that KLM interpreter Madelon van der Hof confirmed that a similar scene was playing out at Amsterdam ’s Schiphol airport , where highly tenacious line had formed .
George Washington University student Haley Ohlund , who was traveling in Copenhagen , told USA Todaythat she booked a return flight at 11:00 a.m. local time on Thursday after hearing the word . The trip was just $ 340 when she started the reservation process , but by the time she was able to finish the booking , it was $ 1,500 to get to Pittsburgh . Some others , such as Raquel Guarino , a master ’s student at University of Gastronomic Sciences in Pollenzo , Italy , state the composition they had given up on the possibility of progress to home anytime presently .
“ If I decided to go to home , I look it up and with flights being delete , I ’d need to pass away through at least three external aerodrome crowded with people from all over Europe , ” Guarino told USA Today . “ Considering one of the advisory is to avoid crowded area , try out to get home when thousands of others are doing the same seems illogical . ”
Delta announcedflight change fee waiverson Wednesday , while American Airlines bring down monetary value caps on trajectory to the U.S. from Europe on Thursday as price soared , according to NBC . Per USA Today , flight of stairs prices from Paris to New York on United Airlines pasture from $ 2,400 to $ 5,700 , while the same leg via American price $ 2,000 to $ 7,300 . Delta ’s site listed prices of $ 2,200 to $ 5,900 .
There’snot currently any reasonto believe Trump ’s travel suspensions will result in any kind of improvement to the domestic outbreak situation . At least1,200 cases and rafts of deathshave been cover across 44 state and Washington , DC , meaning the coronavirus is well beyond the point where external travel restrictions could curb its bed cover . His address was partially written by Stephen Miller , a White House aide withties to white nationalist ideology , and was heavy on xenophobia ( such as refer to the virus as “ foreign ” ) .
Together with the fact that the Schengen Area at magnanimous does n’t seem to be a coherent grouping of countries to banish locomotion from , that suggests the White House was more concerned in trying to look tough with a surprise unprecedented move and trying to paint the on-going health crisis as the geological fault of open borders . They ’ve deliver the goods on at least the first front , though whether they deliberately intended to make this much chaos is anyone ’s guess . U.S. market place have dived so dramatically thattrading was suspendedat the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday .
“ The Coronavirus is a global crisis , not limited to any continent and it require cooperation rather than unilateral natural process , ” the European Union wrote in anexasperated assertion , per the Washington Post . “ The European Union disapproves of the fact that the U.S. conclusion to impose a travel ban was rent one-sidedly and without consultation . ”
“ Trump needed a story to acquit his administration from any province in the crisis , ” former French ambassador to the U.S.Gérard Araud tweeted . “ The foreigner is always a good scapegoat . The Chinese has already been used . So , let ’s take the European , not any Europe , the EU - one . ”
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