Good News. The USA has reopened its borders, direct flights will not be available until May
“Fully vaccinated can arrive in the United States upon presentation of a negative PCR test not older than 72 hours. A negative test is enough for children under 18. Unvaccinated people will remain in the USA only exceptionally, “said Foreign Minister Jakub Kulhánek on Twitter.
Vaccination among the approved US federal agency is enough to enter the United States, and all vaccines used in our country are included.
Compliance with the vaccination obligation will be checked by individual airlines before boarding the aircraft. “Airlines will check the status of vaccinations in the same way they have been doing for some time, with evidence of negative tests before departure, and will continue to do so. There is only a very narrow system of exceptions, which also includes children under the age of eighteen.
If you travel with vaccinated parents, they do not have to quarantine, “said Cindy Friedman of the CDC (Center for Disease Control and Prevention) at a teleconference.
The release of rests, which affects all countries of the European Union, has triggered a huge wave of interest in flights across the Atlantic. Ticket prices have soared, but experts expect that this is just a short-term wave of interest and prices will return to normal.
Airlines must not admit anyone who does not meet the conditions. Thus, in adults, it is 14 days from the complete completion of vaccination and the submission of proof of PCR testing not older than 72 hours before the time of departure.
In children and adolescents, older vaccination is not a condition, but the PCR test must not be 24 hours, which can be quite a major problem due to the time from sampling to evaluation of the test.
From the Czech Republic to the USA directly? Only since May
No airlines now offer direct US flights from Prague, although this has been the case in the past. Delta Air Lines was the first to announce the return of a direct connection to Prague about a month ago, but only from May next year, when it wants to operate a direct connection between Prague and John Fitzgerald Kennedy’s main airport in New York. According to a press release from Prague Airport, the first direct connection on the route should appear on May 26, 2022.
“The renewal of a direct flight to New York, which was one of the most attractive long-haul flights at Prague Airport in 2019, is excellent news, especially for all Czech passengers who will be able to enjoy convenient and fast connections to the east coast of the United States in two years. Before the current crisis, more than 70,000 passengers flew between Prague and New York every year, which represents a strong potential for year-round direct connections with Prague, “said Jiří Pos, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Prague Airport.
Delta also confirmed the reopening of the line. “We are pleased to be returning to the Czech market with direct connections and to be able to use passengers with convenient and fast connections from Prague to New York and to subsequent destinations to the Americas,” said Guido Hackel, Country Manager at Air France, KLM and Delta Air Lines for Austria, the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
Delta is already selling tickets for next year, the cheapest return ticket will come to 12,617 crowns at the moment. Another American company – United Airlines, which will not fly to New York to JFK Airport, but to Newark Airport in New Jersey, not far from the metropolis, wants to return to Prague with direct flights from May next year.
Where to the USA? And for how much? Prague is more expensive than Vienna
There are no direct flights from Prague yet, but you can use connections with transfers to some of the major European airports. From Prague via Vienna, Munich, Frankfurt and Zurich, you can get a return ticket at the turn of November and December for a price of around 11 to 12 thousand.
Another option is to get to some of the airports in the nearby border separately and buy a ticket from there. For example, the letuska.cz website offers return tickets from Vienna, which is more accessible than Prague for passengers from more Moravia, to New York for most of December for a price of slightly over ten thousand crowns, from Prague you will pay at least two thousand.
Prices just below 10.5 thousand crowns are also available for flights from Vienna to New York by the Student Agency server; in this case, too, prices are significantly higher from Prague. In most cases, however, these are the cheapest fares, usually without checked baggage.
According to experts, prices will fall next year. At present, carriers record great interest from passengers, both due to the upcoming holidays and from family members of those who have lived in the USA for a long time and could not visit them in person.