Airline COVID-19 capacity, network, staff cuts 30MAR-05APR

British Airways resumes flights to South Africa

British Airways (BA, London Heathrow) has confirmed it has resumed flights to South Africa despite the country remaining on the United Kingdom's COVID-19 red list following the detection by South African scientists of the new Omicron variant.

Flights from London to South Africa resumed November 29 and those from South Africa start on December 1, a spokesman in London confirmed to ch-aviation. "We are serving both Johannesburg O.R. Tambo and Cape Town. Between December 1 and 6, we’ll have six flights from Johannesburg and six flights from Cape Town to London," he said.

Under the UK government red list COVID-19 rules, only British or Irish nationals and those with residence rights in the UK will be allowed to enter the UK on these flights. Even then, they will have to take a COVID-19 test three days before travel, book a costly quarantine hotel package, including two more COVID-19 tests. This is required even for travellers who are fully vaccinated.

Between November 26 and 28, the UK added 10 Southern African countries...

Southern Africa hit with travel embargo over Covid Omicron

Following the emergence of a new Covid variant (Omicron B.1.1.529) in Botswana and South Africa last week, Southern Africa's air connectivity has been decimated after various countries around the world restricted access to travellers arriving from the two countries as well as Angola, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Malawi, Mozambique, Lesotho, Eswatini, and Namibia.

Among the countries that have so far imposed travel restrictions on either the entire group or select members include:

• Australia,
• Austria,
• Bahrain,
• Croatia,
• Czechia,
• Canada,
• Cyprus;
• Denmark,
• Egypt;
• France,
• Germany,
• Hong Kong,
• India,
• Ireland,
• Israel,
• Italy,
• Japan,
• Kuwait,
• Malaysia,
• Mauritius,
• Morocco,
• The Netherlands,
• Philippines,
• Portugal;
• Qatar,
• Saudi Arabia (has also embargoed commercial passenger flights from Madagascar, Seychelles, Mauritius, and Comoros),
• Seychelles,
• Singapore,
• Spain,
• Turkey,
• the United Arab Emirates,
• the United Kingdom, and
• the United States.

In turn, given these restrictions, the following airlines have said they will suspend flights to some or all of...

Editorial Comment: Added Switzerland to the list of countries. - 29.11.2021 - 05:40 UTC

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