For Who the Trump Bell Tolls

Inbound travel to the US is certainly getting impacted by Trump’s travel ban and the rhetoric that surrounds it.  Emirates Airlines said recently that bookings have plummeted 35% on US routes.  International travel in general to the US has fallen by around 7%.  Airlines are canceling forward orders for new equipment because the size of the inbound US market is so huge and the impact in dollars is making no good sense to their balance books.  Programs that are being sold overseas inbound to the US are also being affected.  When you talk about affecting Middle East dollars, you are talking serious dollars and lots of them that will be spent somewhere else.  It’s too early to say whether this travel ban will drag the airline industry in another direction.  But inbound flights to the US that carried highly profitable passengers that spend serious amounts of money are not easily going to be replaced soon.

 

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