Though passenger traffic at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport has started to rebound, the nonstop flights to Europe are still grounded.
American Airlines announced in July that it would no longer resume its nonstop service from Sky Harbor to London Heathrow on Oct. 25. Instead, it announced a vague new target of “winter.” The other airlines that fly from Phoenix to Europe — Condor, Lufthansa and British Airways — also have their nonstop flights on hold. None of those airlines have announced prospective return dates.
That leaves the return of European flights — pun intended — up in the air.
Three things have to change before the nonstop flights from Phoenix will resume. Specifically, Europe has to lift its travel restrictions on Americans, the United States has to lift its travel restrictions and airlines need to see a return of customer demand.
More: Trump’s Europe travel ban: What it means for Phoenix fliers
“Long-haul flights are not possible until the German Foreign Office allows them again,” Magdalena Hauser, spokeswoman for Condor Airlines, told The Arizona Republic when reached by email. The airline has a Phoenix-to-Frankfurt route.
On June 30, the European Union released its list of nations whose residents would be allowed to enter for nonessential travel when it reopened to international travel on July 1. The United States is not on that list.
Per the European Union, the follow criteria were used to decide which countries’ residents could enter:
The EU will review its list of countries every two weeks. Given the criteria and the United States’ continued upward trend in cases, it’s unlikely Americans will be included soon.
There are some exceptions. If you are a citizen of the European Union, you are allowed to travel there. If you are headed there on a long-term work visa, you are allowed to enter as well.
President Trump’s travel restrictions, starting with China in January then extended to the Schengen area of Europe and the United Kingdom in March, still stand.
They prohibit citizens from the Schengen area of Europe, the United Kingdom, Brazil, China and Iran from entering the U.S. and requires American passengers arriving from those areas to route through 13 airports for additional screening.
Phoenix is not one of the designated airports, so international flights can’t resume here until the routing of passengers through those airports is lifted.
The Phoenix-Europe routes were very popular before the pandemic and Sky Harbor and the airlines anticipate the flights will return. The question of when boils down to one obvious thing: demand.
The Centers for Disease Control and the U.S. Department of State still advise against international travel and that, combined with travel restrictions and decreased business travel, have tanked demand for flights.
American Airlines doesn’t anticipate a quick rebound. It already expects that its international passenger traffic for summer 2021 will be 25% less than in 2019.
Hauser said the return of Condor’s flights to Frankfurt depends not only on the European Union lifting restrictions but also “the travel restrictions for Germans in the respective destination.”
The bottom line: Airlines need to have passengers in seats — in both directions — to make money. So flying those large planes overseas nonstop from Phoenix won’t make sense until these three issues are resolved.
You can connect with Arizona Republic Consumer Travel Reporter Melissa Yeager through email at [email protected]. You can also follow her on Twitter and Instagram.