Airlines such as Ryanair and JetBlue have begun to add new international routes for their customers as more people in the United States and worldwide look to travel. As more people continue to be vaccinated, many airlines, businesses, and countries are hoping that tourism will rise once again as more people look to travel safely. Perhaps readying themselves for this, various airlines have begun to add new international routes — JetBlue and Ryanair being the first.
JetBlue, which normally functions solely in the United States and surrounding areas, has now added flights from New York to London in August, a first for the airline company. This will be the first time JetBlue enters the transatlantic market. The airline has been considering this jump for more than two years, though the COVID-19 pandemic obviously put a strain on any major decisions.
While JetBlue will, at first, only fly to London’s Heathrow airport, they will also open up flights to England’s Gatwick airport later on in September. They plan to have low-cost, daily flights to London from New York’s John F. Kennedy (JFK) airport. JetBlue also hopes to begin flights to London from Boston in the summer of 2022, as well as flights to other European cities in the future.
Meanwhile, the Irish airline company Ryanair is one of the first to announce new routes to Germany. They’ve added 24 new routes to 10 German airports, all set to begin sometime in the 2021 summer season.
Ryanair’s latest business announcement comes amid many looking to travel this summer and later this year throughout Europe. Much of Europe has been in different forms of lockdown, or has been closed to travelers from time to time, in the last year as the world has sought to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, Europe is reopening and looking to increase their tourism — and boost their economy in the process.
As more people get vaccinated in the United States and worldwide, tourism is naturally expected to go up. Whereas international flights were grounded or only occurred in small numbers last summer, airlines such as JetBlue and Ryanair are already anticipating that many will want to travel this summer. For some people, this will be the first time they are able to travel in more than a year.
Whereas more Americans can now fly internationally for vacation, British people do still have some restrictions. Those in England and Scotland can fly to 12 countries that are on a “green” list and not have to quarantine before or after their trip. Those who fly to “amber” countries on the list do have to quarantine for at least 10 days. As more vaccinated people begin to travel, more restrictions are thought to be lowered or done away with.
For airlines like Ryanair, they are looking forward to the future and hoping that these restrictions do go away as it becomes much safer for citizens to fly to other countries. The same goes for those in the United States. As more vaccinated people begin to fly, there is the hope that it will become easier to vacation, easier to visit different countries and different businesses, and therefore easier to get back to how things used to be before the pandemic changed the world.
