Flight bookings to the US fell by 6.5 per cent in the week after US president Donald Trump first announced a ban on travellers from seven countries.
Data from Forward Keys showed that airline bookings to the US fell immediately after Trump announced his initial ban on seven Muslim-majority countries entering the US on January 27.
This ban on citizens of Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen was suspended by the US courts on February 4. But Trump has vowed to introduce a new ban this week.
A survey carried out by ACTE in early February found that the travel ban was spreading “fear and uncertainty” among the business travel industry.
Unsurprisingly, the biggest regional fall in bookings to the US was from the Middle East with sales dropping by 37.5 per cent compared to the same week in 2016. Bookings from the seven affected countries fell by 80 per cent.
Northern Europe, which includes the UK, saw a 6.6 per cent reduction in airline tickets to the US during the same period while bookings from western Europe dropped by 13.6 per cent.
The only regions to see a growth in US bookings during the week after the initial ban were the Americas and eastern Europe.
Forward Keys also reported there has been a “slowing down” in the growth of air bookings to the US for arrival within the next three months.