In a televised address, president Donald Trump stated travellers from the 26 countries in the Schengen border-free travel zone will be barred from entering the United States for 30 days from tomorrow due to coronavirus fears sending airline stocks to new lows today after weeks of pressure on the sector.
Analyst Andrew Lobbenberg said: “Its bookings are disproportionately weighted to United States point of sale. Whilst this demand was already extremely weak, as COVID-19 impacted confidence, we think it will come close to drying up altogether.
“We expect Norwegian to need to ground a significant share of its long haul aircraft”.
Norwegian Air fell over 21 per cent, KLM-Air France fell 15 per cent, Easyjet fell 5.9 per cent and Ryanair dropped 4.5 per cent.
“To keep new cases from entering our shores, we will be suspending all travel from Europe,” Trump said.
In response to Trumps later claims that “trade would in no way be affected” the European Commission issued a statement.
“The coronavirus is a global crisis, not limited to any continent and it requires cooperation rather than unilateral action, The European Union disapproves of the fact that the United States decision to impose a travel ban was taken unilaterally and without consultation.”
