There have been reports of chaotic scenes at Paris’ Charles de Gaulle airport as Americans scramble to get back to the USA ahead of the planned travel ban from Europe.
US president Donald Trump announced on Wednesday night that all travel from Schengen zone countries – including France – would be banned from 11.59pm on Friday, in an attempt to stop the spread of coronavirus.
The ban as announced has a lot of exemptions and loopholes, but the uncertainty over what happens next has caused panic among many Americans who were in France for holidays, work or visiting relatives.
With the announcement that the ban would come in to force on Friday night, many entered a desperate last-minute scramble to get home.
From what we know at the moment it appears that the ban does not cover US citizens or their close family (which includes parents, children and spouses but not partners).
There are also no restrictions on flights from the UK and Ireland and airline or boat crew are exempt.
However with vast numbers of people cancelling their trips, many fear that airlines will soon begin to scrap flights rather than fly virtually empty planes.
The US Department of Homeland Security says it will give more detail over the next two days, so it’s possible that some of the loopholes mentioned above could be tightened up.
And all the uncertainty has caused a great deal of concern, with many people scrambling to get back before the ban comes in to force.
Read the rest here: https://www.thelocal.fr/20200312/some-americans-are-paying-up-to-20000-for-last-minute-flights-out-of-france