Omicron Covid variant: Curbs from Japan to Spain wreak havoc on air travel | Travel - Hindustan Times
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Omicron Covid variant: Curbs from Japan to Spain wreak havoc on air travel

Bloomberg | | Posted by Krishna Priya Pallavi
Nov 29, 2021 02:50 PM IST

An initial spate of flight bans from southern Africa, where Omicron was first detected, gave way to wider-ranging measures that will make travel more expensive and less convenient recalling earlier days in the pandemic.

Airlines, passengers and businesses had to respond to a deluge of travel restrictions introduced to slow the spread of the Omicron coronavirus variant

Omicron Covid variant: Curbs from Japan to Spain wreak havoc on air travel(REUTERS)
Omicron Covid variant: Curbs from Japan to Spain wreak havoc on air travel(REUTERS)

An initial spate of flight bans from southern Africa, where Omicron was first detected, gave way to wider-ranging measures that will make travel more expensive and less convenient -- if possible at all -- recalling earlier days in the pandemic. 

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From Tuesday, Japan will ban foreign visitors until more is known about the variant, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said in Tokyo on Monday.   

The UK reintroduced mandatory PCR tests for all arriving passengers and said they must self-isolate until receiving a negative result. Israel closed to all inbound foreign nationals for 14 days, the Philippines said travellers from European countries including Switzerland and the Netherlands won’t be welcome for several weeks and Singapore delayed the launch of vaccinated travel lanes with Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.

ALSO READ | Risk related to Covid variant Omicron 'very high', warns WHO

Spain and Switzerland tightened access for arrivals from Britain, whose travel comeback has quickly been thrown into reverse. UK low-cost carrier EasyJet Plc said Sunday its flight schedule was operating as normal, “however we continue to monitor the situation closely.”

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While the full impact will get clearer over coming days, “this will be problematic for business travel -- particularly inbound into the UK,” said Martin Ferguson, a spokesman for American Express Global Business Travel.

Travel Dilemma

Organizers of the World Aviation Festival in London told attendees the event will go on as scheduled starting Tuesday, the day the new UK rules come into effect. The group arranged for testing at two nearby hotels where delegates who are guests can self-isolate while awaiting results. 

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A separate, internal corporate event in the UK was shifted to hybrid from in-person, because the new testing and isolation requirements would have caught out some attendees set to arrive on Tuesday, according to a person familiar with the matter.

ALSO READ | Japan to bar new foreign arrivals over Omicron Covid variant: PM Fumio Kishida

Negative Incentives

Leisure travel will also see an impact, while friends and relatives visiting loved ones after long absences are more likely to go through with a trip, said Alex Irving, an analyst at Bernstein in London.

“Christmas bookings will obviously be weaker than we had expected prior to the Omicron variant,” he said. “As you add barriers to travel such as the PCR tests and isolation requirements, all that does is changes the incentives. 

Step Backward

Airlines face a return to the uncertainty of shifting rules and public-health developments that threw customer plans into chaos and undermined demand earlier in the pandemic. 

British Airways, for example, halted flights to Hong Kong through at least November 30 after one employee tested positive for Covid-19 and staff were sent into quarantine. The airline said it is keeping its operations under review as the situation evolves. 

ALSO READ | New Covid variant shuts borders across globe

The risk of a second lost winter has already tanked shares of airline stocks, with the Bloomberg EMEA Airline Index down 18 per cent for the month as of Friday. They made up some of the losses on Monday, amid reports that some people infected with the Omicron variant developed mild symptoms.

British Airways parent IAG SA was up 3.8 per cent at 8:04 a.m. in London, Ryanair Holdings Plc rising 4.3 per cent in Dublin, Air France-KLM advancing 1.9 per cent in Paris and Deutsche Lufthansa AG up 3.5 per cent in Frankfurt.

“Friday’s dramatic share price moves have already more than factored in a realistic downside case from the Omicron variant for most of our stocks,” James Ainley, an analyst with Citigroup, said in a research note. 

The share-price drops will make it harder to raise fresh capital to repair balance sheets -- IAG has 12.4 billion euros (USD14 billion) in net debt, for example. 

“This comes at a time of year when airlines will seek to bolster liquidity and to a modest extent profitability, and is after an already arduous 18 months of revenue depletion,” said John Strickland, who heads London-based JLS Consulting. 

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This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed.
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