The US opens up to Europeans: this is how it will affect the Israeli tourist | Israel Today

Good news and one less for the Israeli tourist:

A year and a half after it closed to Europeans, the United States today (Monday) opens its gates to travelers arriving from the old continent when vaccinated according to American requirements. Those who can still enter the United States are children up to 18 .

According to the guidelines, those vaccinated with at least two doses of an FDA-approved vaccine will be able to enter the U.S. alongside a negative corona test that they will need to present from the three days prior to the flight.

The vaccine requirement does not apply to children up to the age of 18, U.S. citizens and permanent residents, as per the instructions passed to airlines yesterday. American form before the flight.

For Israelis, this is a kind of aggravation in the conditions of entry into the United States, since until now even the vaccinated could not fly to the United States without the need for a special permit, but now, according to the latest guidelines that come into force today, those who are not vaccinated can not enter the United States.

The announcement of the opening to Europeans and the possibility for Israelis to fly to the United States with a connection in Europe, has expanded the supply of flights to the country, which has led to a significant drop in the prices of flights to the United States in recent weeks.

Prices have at some point dropped below $ 300 for flights to Miami with the Portuguese company TAP.

US airport, Photo: Reuters

Ofer Kish, CEO of the Lufthansa Group in Israel, commented on the festive day for Europeans, which also greatly affects Israeli travelers to the United States: Who booked flights with us via Europe (Munich, Frankfurt, Zurich, Vienna and Brussels).

"There are several reasons to fly to the US via Europe - first of all it's a break of a long flight with a stop in the middle, it's very convenient for a lot of people.

There are a lot of regular passengers who want to keep accumulating points, there are passengers who need to reach destinations in the US that do not have a direct flight from Tel Aviv but there are direct flights from Europe and of course, once there is more supply, prices go down and we see a really nice drop in prices to the United States.

“What surprised me a lot in our data, is that our sales to the US are growing very significantly in the premium economics and business departments.

This indicates that many business people of small and medium-sized companies are returning to fly for business travel and this is very encouraging because it indicates the revival of the market.

"This is great news for Europeans, in the first days there will be a bottleneck, Europeans have not been able to fly to the US since the beginning of the Corona period, from tomorrow they can fly - this is huge news for them much more than us, it is a groundbreaking event."

Nir Mazor, VP of Aviation Relations, commented on the implications of the decision: "The return of Europe and other destinations on the map of connections to the United States will significantly expand the range of flights to the most popular destination for the Israeli tourist and businessman.

"Naturally, when supply rises, price reductions come immediately after, and this is to be expected in this case as well."