americans who managed a holiday in europe this summer may have sneaked in under the wire new travel restrictions may be coming for unvaccinated americans as covid19 cases surge in the us the european union on monday removed the us from its list of countries for which nonessential travel restrictions should be lifted israel kosovo lebanon montenegro and north macedonia were also removed the eu allows its 27 member countries to impose their own restrictions and entry requirements vary widely it’s expected that fully vaccinated americans will still be able to travel to europe without quarantine requirements but this may signal a new wave of clampdowns on travel as covid cases surge in the us while vaccination rates in the country trail european countries canada and other regions it’s a blow for airline investors who were banking on a recovery fueled by highmargin international travel to europe and other destinations abroad the sector slumped 27 on monday delta air lines ticker dal american airlines group aal and united airlines holdings ual each lost at least 35 domesticoriented carriers didn’t fare much better with southwest airlines luv jetblue airways jblu and spirit airlines save all down 3 or more the sector has been in a rut for months coinciding with another wave of covid cases and new battles over masking and vaccination requirements in states like texas and florida—both now seeing nearrecord hospitalizations and deaths from covid the pandemic’s resurgence is also igniting worries that the summer travel rebound may recede rapidly this fall especially if business travel also slows carriers including alaska air group alk american delta and united have all trimmed their fall schedules indeed nearly every major carrier is now planning a slimmer schedule  compared with expectations a few months ago “based on filed schedules the us is seeing material closein september and broad october cuts likely reacting to both weaker demand and strained operations” wrote raymond james analyst savanthi syth in a recent note the sector may be partially reflecting the weaker outlook it’s down 15 in the past three months and is off 21 from its yeartodate highs in march some analysts view the weakness as a buying opportunity seaport global securities’ daniel mckenzie is sticking with his 2022 earnings forecasts for instance writing that the recent pressure is likely to be transitory and should reverse later this year he doesn’t expect valuations to improve “until case counts fall and the risk to the economy shifts to the rear view mirror” but he views delta american and jetblue as the best bets on the pullback bernstein’s david vernon also says that investors should stick with the sector “we continue to see more upside in the large network airlines and reiterate our buy ratings on the group” he wrote in a recent report some analysts note that travel is recovering in states where the delta wave may be peaking arkansas and missouri for instance have seen gains in airport traffic based on a sevenday average since a peak in delta infections in those states according to raymond james still the sector remains closely correlated to pandemic trends and if you’re planning a trip to europe you’ll almost certainly need a vaccination card snap a photo of it too in case you need to prove you’re inoculated to grab a bite in a café