Life is slowly going back to normal in several countries around the world. Although cautiously and with different rules, borders are reopening and commercial airlines are starting to fly again. An update on the situation.
While things are slowly getting back to normal in all spheres of life, it will probably be some more time until we are able to go on holiday. However, some of us still need to fly internationally for medical reasons or fly back to their home country or country of residence. While repatriation flights depend on different countries' policies, a few borders have reopened and commercial airlines are starting to operate again.
As of the 27th of May, most countries' borders remain closed and not a lot have planned on reopening before at least the end of June.
Europe
The European Commission has recommended that European borders remain closed until at least the 8th of June and even beyond that, borders only reopen gradually and in a coordinated manner.
The Italian government has announced that EU citizens will be allowed in and out from the 3rd of June. It is the earliest an European country is reopening its borders, although some borders were never closed. There has been no information on when the borders would reopen in France and Germany until now. The latter has, however, extended the state of emergency until the 24th of July. Spain has announced there will not be any non-essential travels in and out of the country before at least July.
The United Kingdom remains open although British authorities are not recommending travel to the country.
America
Only American citizens and permanent residents are allowed into the United States right now and the country has recommended its citizens to avoid all non-essential travel. Canada's has shut its borders and have not announced reopenings anytime soon, likely not before July.
Mexico, on the other hand, has announced the reopening of its borders in June to welcome tourists into its vacation spots.
Asia
Chinese borders are reopening slowly although entries are very controlled and incomers are asked to quarantine for 14 days as China fears a second wave of infections. India's borders are still closed and there is no information as to when it is reopening and so are Japanese and Singaporean borders.
A few countries are thinking to allow foreigners back in, especially those who are heavily dependent on tourism such as Indonesia and Thailand but there are no official dates yet.
Australia and New Zealand
Borders remain closed to all international travelers in New Zealand and only citizens, permanent residents and family members are allowed into Australia at the moment. New Zealand is slowly starting to reopen bars, pubs and restaurants, however but there have been no talks of reopening borders just yet.
Africa
Africa has been the last continent to be affected by the COVID-19 crisis. As of the 27th of May, borders of a lot of African countries remain closed. Rwandan borders remain open for tourism, however, and borders of South Africa are opened but only to travelers that are not from, or have not travelled to certain countries prior to their arrival. Countries include Italy, Spain, South Korea, Germany and the United States.
Are commercial international flights being operated?
While most commercial airlines are still operating a limited number of flights mostly used for repatriation purposes, most airlines are not expected to resume their normal flights anytime before June. The earliest will be US-based international airlines which have announced that they will be going back to operation in June.
On the other hand, Air France has also announced it might be operating flights as early as the 15th of June. Other European airlines have announced that they would start operating more flights over the month of June and July. Low-cost airline Ryanair is not expected to start operating before July while the other low-cost airline Eurowings is expected to add a few flights during the month of June.
Emirates has announced that they will be resuming their flights in July and India's national airline is also expected to start operating more commercial flights in June.
