The US eased international travel restrictions on Monday (8 November) for the first time in nearly two years, removing its country-by-country travel restrictions and instead introducing international restrictions based on the vaccination status of individual travellers.<\/p>\n
The change means that the United States will admit fully vaccinated foreign air travellers from the 26 so-called Schengen countries in Europe \u2013 including France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Switzerland and Greece \u2013 as well as Britain, Ireland, China, India, and South Africa.<\/p>\n
The new system carries the following rules:<\/p>\n
Unvaccinated travellers are allowed, but only if they are US citizens or permanent residents returning to the states, or part of explicitly exempt groups.<\/p>\n
There are expected to be few if any empty seats on many of the international flights on Monday, and passenger volume is expected to remain high in coming weeks, Reuters<\/a> <\/strong>reported.<\/p>\n Delta Airlines said in the six weeks since the U.S reopening was announced it has seen a 450% increase in international point-of-sale bookings versus the six weeks prior to the announcement.<\/p>\n Airlines, which have warned there will likely be long queues at first, will check vaccination documentation for international travellers as they currently do for Covid-19 test results.<\/p>\n
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