If the first stop on your vision-board post-lockdown travel itinerary involved jumping on a plane and flying to South America this summer — sorry, they don’t want you. Keep your plans local for another season (at least), as the country of Colombia has joined Argentina in extending their international coronavirus travel bans until August 31st. According to MSN, on Wednesday, May 20th, Colombian officials announced an official extension of the country’s air travel ban, keeping all commercial flights grounded domestically until the end of June and keeping all international flights from landing until August 31st.
Latin America as a whole has implemented some of the strictest travel bans in the world. According to Forbes, in addition to Colombia and Argentina, Peru, Ecuador, El Salvador, and Panama have all grounded commercial flights and have repeatedly extended their respective travel bans throughout the duration of the pandemic. Brazil, Bolivia, and Peru are set to reopen by the end of May followed soon after by Mexico, which plans on resuming international travel sometime in June or July and currently is still restricting non-essential travel at the U.S. border.
According to MSN, Colombia’s decision to further extend its air travel ban is hitting Avianca Holdings — the country’s largest air carrier — especially hard as the carrier’s entire passenger fleet is unable to fly due to the restrictions of the countries they often serve. This month, Avianca filed for bankruptcy in the U.S. court and had hoped to resume flying in June.
According to Forbes, Greece is aiming to welcome tourists as early as July, though whether they’ll accept travelers from the United States, the current epicenter of the coronavirus spread, remains to be seen. While far-flung travel is fun to dream about, it’s just not realistic right now.
