Coronavirus travel ban: Customers left in the dark after Trump restricts travel from Europe

The announcement sparked near-immediate confusion and chaos among US citizens and foreigners alike

As concern over the spread of coronavirus increases, Donald Trump has announced a 30-day ban on travel from Europe.

The restrictions, which the president announced from the Oval Office on Wednesday, sparked near-immediate confusion and chaos among US citizens and foreigners alike.

According to the president, the ban - which will start on Friday 13 March and last for 30 days - will decrease the spread of what he called the “foreign virus”.

“If we are vigilant and we can reduce the chance of infection [and] impede the transmission of the virus,” Mr Trump said. “The virus will not have a chance against us.”

However, shortly after the president’s remarks, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued a statement attempting to clarify key points of the ban.

“Today President Donald J Trump signed a Presidential Proclamation, which suspends the entry of most foreign nationals who have been in certain European countries at any point during the 14 days prior to their scheduled arrival to the United States,” the statement reads.

In addition to stating the ban will not affect flights from the United Kingdom and will only apply to countries known as the Schengen Area, the DHS also said the ban does not apply to “legal permanent residents, (generally) immediate family members of US citizens, and other individuals who are identified in the proclamation”.

But for travellers, the statement did little to clarify confusion over the ban, with many taking to social media to question what will happen to their travel plans.

While the majority of airlines have not yet issued public statements regarding the ban, many were already attempting to answer customer enquiries on Twitter.

“The US authorities are setting restrictions for travel from Europe due to the coronavirus situation. We are addressing the impacts of this to our flights today and will then communicate to our customers. We are sorry about the uncertainty this is causing to our customers,” Finnair tweeted Wednesday night.

According to a response from Lufthansa, customers whose flights get cancelled because of the ban “may request a full refund of the unused flight segments,” with “calculation of the refund amount done by its refunds department”.

“Maybe US citizens can board flights from Europe back to the US. Who knows?” one customer asked amid the confusion. “But if Europeans can’t fly to the US for at least the next month, are airlines going to continue operating those flights?”