FRANKFURT – German airline Lufthansa has said it does not expect the entry ban on European travelers to the United States to be lifted before Christmas. Team member Harry Homester told an online conference hosted by TravelDoc magazine that travel restrictions were not expected until the end of the fourth quarter.

Lufthansa hopes that the ban on non-essential travel, which has been in place since March last year due to the corona infection, will be lifted in July this year. After that, Lufthansa CEO Carsten Spohr set his sights on September, but soon noted that he did not trust himself in making predictions.

The European Union lifted restrictions on American travelers in June. Hohmmeister said he could not understand the logic behind the US decision to impose an entry ban on Europeans because vaccine rates are the same in many countries in the United States and Europe.

The profitability of US flights to Lufthansa is not only due to the low demand, but also due to the fact that US citizens not only take Atlantic flights, but also boom in the aviation cargo industry. Lufthansa “fills its passenger planes with cargo,” Hohmeister said.

A few days ago, Spohr predicted a “long, cold winter” for the airline, especially as China is unlikely to ease travel restrictions after the second quarter of next year. During normal years, Lufthansa makes the most profit from long-haul flights to North America and Asia.