President Donald Trump could lift the US travel ban on the UK and Europe as early as next week, The Telegraph reported on Friday, citing industry and aviation sources.
Trump is expected to authorize the lifting of the travel ban through an executive order on Tuesday, according to the report, which cited senior sources in the travel industry.
The decision comes at a time when the British government has been making a concerted effort to persuade the administration to lift or soften travel restrictions that bar most people in the United Kingdom from traveling to the United States, sources briefed on the matter said.
On November 25, Reuters reported the White House was considering rescinding entry bans for most non-US citizens who recently were in Brazil, Britain, Ireland and 26 other European countries.
President Trump (seen on Saturday at the United States Military Academy in West Point, New York) is expected to sign an executive order on Tuesday lifting the travel ban on the United Kingdom and the European Union
Since then there has been no decision by President Donald Trump, but UK officials have held a series of high-level talks with White House and Cabinet officials.
The White House declined to comment on Friday.
But in an email to Reuters, a spokeswoman for the UK Department for Transport said ‘restarting transatlantic flights is of critical importance to the economic recovery of the UK and the US, the airline industry and for British nationals, most of whom cannot enter the US.
‘British officials continue to pursue the resolution to this issue.’
The proposal to lift the travel restrictions won the backing of White House coronavirus task-force members, public health and other federal agencies, Reuters reported in November.
In October, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said he had urged Trump to ease travel restrictions from Europe and Brazil to help boost the state’s struggling tourism economy.
British Airways logos are seen on tailfins at Heathrow Airport in west London in this file photo. The United Kingdom has been lobbying the Trump administration to lift travel restrictions that have barred most Britons from traveling to the United States
One hurdle to lifting the restrictions is the high number of coronavirus infections in Europe.
The United States last week extended travel restrictions on Mexico and Canadian land border crossings through at least January 21.
The US restrictions barring most visitors from Europe have been in place since mid-March to address the coronavirus pandemic, barring entry of most non-US residents who have been in those countries in the previous 14 days.
Nearly all of Europe still bans most US travelers from visiting, while Britain allows American visits but requires two-weeks quarantine upon arrival.
Airlines for America, a group representing American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, United Airlines and others, told Reuters last month it has ‘been advocating for the federal government to set a national standard on testing in order to lift travel restrictions.’
The British also raised the possibility of using testing to establish a flight bubble between London and New York or easing travel restrictions for people who have been vaccinated.
Last month, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued new travel and testing recommendations for international air travelers recommending they ‘get tested with a viral test 1-3 days before their flight to reduce spread during travel.’
The UK entered the final week before Christmas with the country bracing for post-celebration coronavirus fallout and Prime Minister Boris Johnson refusing Friday to rule out a fresh national lockdown after the holiday.
The government plans to relax restrictions on socializing and travel for five days before and after Christmas.
With infections rising in the UK, which has Europe’s second-highest coronavirus death toll, there are concerns about a possible fresh surge of cases and deaths after the holidays.
Meanwhile, in the United States, tens of millions of people are expected to travel to family gatherings or winter vacations over Christmas, despite pleas by public health experts who fear the result could be another surge in COVID-19 cases.
In the US, AAA predicts that about 85 million people will travel between December 23 and January 3, most of them by car.
If true, that would be a drop of nearly one-third from a year ago, but still a massive movement of people in the middle of a pandemic.
The seven-day rolling average of newly reported infections in the US has risen from about 176,000 a day just before Thanksgiving to more than 215,000 a day.
It’s too early to calculate how much of that increase is due to travel and gatherings over Thanksgiving, but experts believe they are a factor.