Lufthansa does not expect easing US entry bans before Christmas

European travellers will probably not be allowed to enter the US again until around Christmas, a Lufthansa board member said on Thursday, reported dpa.

An easing of US entry restrictions is not realistically expected until late in the fourth quarter, board member Harry Hohmeister said at an online industry conference organized by the magazine fvw TravelTalk.

Some at Lufthansa had hoped that the ban on European non-essential travel, which has been in place since March 2020, would be lifted by this July.

CEO Carsten Spohr then set his sights on September, but recently said he no longer trusted himself to make a prediction.

The EU lifted its restrictions on American travellers in June.

Hohmeister said he could not understand the logic behind the US decision to maintain an entry ban on Europeans, because the vaccination rate in the US and many countries in Europe is at a comparable level.

The fact that US flights remain profitable for Lufthansa - despite the comparatively low demand - is due not only to US citizens making trans-Atlantic flights, but also a boom in the airfreight business.

Lufthansa packs its passenger jets "to the rafters with cargo," said Hohmeister.

A few days ago, Spohr had predicted a "long, cold winter" for the airline group, especially since China is also unlikely to relax travel restrictions until the second quarter of 2022.

Lufthansa generates a large portion of its profits from long-haul flights to North America and Asia in normal years.