brunos

https://www.gov.sg/article/covid-19-...ring-singapore
"From 15 March 2020, 2359 hours, all new visitors with recent travel history to France, Germany, Italy and Spain within the last 14 days will not be allowed entry into or transit through Singapore.

For Singapore residents and long-term pass holders with recent travel history to France, Germany, Italy and Spain within the last 14 days, they will be issued a Stay-Home Notice (SHN). Under the SHN, they will have to remain in their place of residence at all times for a 14-day period after returning to Singapore."

That might be the end of AF flights to SIN.
Singapore has been able to hold an almost-normal life thanks to such measures.

brunos

As of today, Vietnam removed visa exemption for the most affected European nations:
French tourists now need a visa and it is unclear if that will be granted.
https://vietnam.travel/things-to-do/...avirus-vietnam

Porcepic

Currently sitting in 2F1 lounge and I have never seen it that empty. Lower level is closed and there is no crowd at the upper one.

And it could have been even quieter if there were no American pax in transit trying to reach the US asap… 😥

nwflyboy

OK, now I’m worried about tight connections on the way home...

Currently in Turkey, scheduled to return back to USA middle of next week. Original routing was IST-CDG-SEA on Air France (in J). AF canceled the CDG-SEA leg and rebooked us via AMS, so now routed IST-CDG, CDG-AMS (all on AF), then AMS-SEA on Delta.

But the connection times look dangerously thin to me.

Connection time in CDG is just 1 hr 15 min (arrive 2E, depart 2F).

Connection time in AMS is just 55 min (no terminals known).

I know AMS is generally quite efficient. However, I understand there’s now mandated “health screening” prior to boarding flights to USA. Surely that will slow down boarding further, no?

On the plus side, we will be traveling on a J ticket (so off the incoming flights early, maybe fast-track lines?).

I assume our checked bags will be checked all the way through (checked in IST, on Air France) through to SEA (last leg on Delta). I’m assuming we will NOT need to claim and re check bags along the way (correct?).

Air travel is down, and by mid- next week I’d expect the glut of panicked Americans will have passed to some extent, and I’d like to think crowds will be down and waits at airports should be lower than usual - I hope.

Down side, these are very tight connections, tighter than I’d accept under normal circumstances.

Given all the above, does it seem likely that we can make these connections? Or do I need to call Air France back and insist that they re-rebook us on more reasonable connections?

​​​​​​​Thanks for your input.

nwflyboy

Well, Turkey just banned all flights to and from 9 European countries, effective tomorrow morning, and those include France and Netherlands...so this renders our ticket home useless. Connection times in CDG and AMS are no longer an issue, since no planes will be flying from Istanbul to those countries.

Thanks to those who offered advice. Time for Plan B. Giddyup.

Goldorak

OMG ! How are you going to go home ? Let us know and I hope you won't be into too much troubles. Be safe !

brunos

Sad, but not fully unexpected.
I suggest that you try to get home ASAP. These are not normal times and restrictions keep being imposed and flights cancelled.
Luckily Turkey is currently a bit under the radar, but that could change in a couple of days.

bodory

SQ has suspended all flights from/to CDG up to 31 May...

Zembla

I’ve been on a lowly loaded IAH-CDG yesterday. A crew member of the l’excellent cabin crew told me that many destinations to the US are cancelled from today, but some destinations such as ATL and JFK will keep at least some sort of daily schedule.

Goldorak

With the Schengen ban, there is also this condition imposed by the US authorities :

For DL, to CDG, it will mean axing flights from SLC, IND, CVG and MSP. For AF, it will mean also stopping IAH.
In practice, for AF, here is the revised program just published with 99.99% chance of more modifications to come :
https://www.routesonline.com/news/38...as-of-13mar20/
No more BOS, MIA, SEA, DFW, IAH (as said above) and for JFK, they are down to 1 daily (from 5) .
For BOS and SEA, it is possible that the routes remain served by DL metal.

brunos

It seems that international longhaul flights will be down to a trickle in the coming weeks. That's true for all airlines. And pax will mostly be nationals going back home.

Many Asian countries have introduced entry/quarantine restrictions for many Schengen pax (Vietnam, Sri Lanka, Cambodia, SIngapore, Hong Kong to name just a recent few) and so have Latin American countries (Argentina, Peru,..). The list is increasing daily. Not a good time to plan Easter vacation in these regions.

NickB

Not just long-haul as far as Europe is concerned: the list of restrictions on entry in European countries coming from some other European countries (Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Norway, Malta, Serbia, Ukraine) is also growing. That plus the cancellation of all but essential travel by many businesses and individuals alike even when travel is officially allowed makes further substantial diminution in the number of flights pretty much unavoidable, I would have thought.

brunos

You are better placed to asses the situation of travel within France and Europe.
With very few pax, It is easier to send a small A318 to NCE or LHR than a big wide-body 777 to a 10hr destination.where crew will be stationed. And France is now regarded as one of the most dangerous covid country, so I doubt that foreign crew will keep wishing to fly there.

My post was motivated by the French Easter holiday when lots of family and friends were supposed to join us in Asia. That's off now. The travel uncertainties are just to great, especially if you have kids.

Goldorak

the Easter holidays are for sure totally ruined, unless you are a secondary house somewhere in the country. As you and NickB said, borders are closing one after another even within Schengen. And even domestically in France, with the shutdown of all non-essential shops/place announced yesterday, there is no point booking an hotel somewhere if everything is closed and no restaurant open.

NickB

That is pretty much the case within Europe as well for similar reasons, especially with Spain now in Italian-style lock down and France in semi-lockdown, with restaurants, bars, malls, etc.. as well as non essential shops closed down and no doubt other countries to follow suit in the next few weeks. Overseas students and visitors are returning home and a lot of people, at least here in the UK, are cancelling their Easter holidays to continental Europe and planning to stay home instead.

We are not going to have a complete shut down of all air services but it will be reduced to a skeleton service. With Spain, we even had yesterday an airline in the UK (Jet2) that suddenly decided to cancel all services to Spain and return to the UK all flights that were currently enroute to Spain. As soon as the slots regulation is suspended or its forthcoming suspension firmly confirmed, I would expect substantial further cancellations of services from major, slot-controlled airports.