Kate Holton and Aziz El Yaakoubi

DUBAI/LONDON – Tuesday’s concerns expressed by airline chiefs about travel restrictions that could be linked to Omicron, a variant of coronavirus, may threaten an industry recovery.

Tim Clark, Emirates CEO of Aviation, was the most vocal warning. He stated that any major disruption to peak December travel season will cause “significant traumas in global aviation.”

EasyJet, a British budget airline (LON) spoke out about a slowing of demand as customers were forced to reconsider their city breaks plans due to the recent resurgence in the virus in continental Europe.

The discovery of the Omicron variant, first reported in southern African last week, dealt a blow to the industry just as it had recovery in its sights, especially following the easing of U.S.-bound travel https://www.reuters.com/world/us/international-travellers-head-united-states-flights-reopen-2021-11-08 earlier in November.

To slow down the spread, multiple countries such as Israel, Britain, USA, Britain, and Canada have placed travel bans.

Clark indicated that scientists will be assessing risks in the coming weeks and Clark would advise the airlines to prepare for these critical times.

“I would say probably by the end of December, we’ll have a much clearer position,” Clark said in an interview for the Reuters Next https://reutersevents.com/events/next conference.

“But at that time, December remains a very crucial month for the airline travel industry,” he said. He said, “If this is lost or the winter lost to many carriers, there will likely be major traumas in business, sure the aviation business.

LOSSING MONEY

Financial results from easyJet, a Scandinavian operator SAS on Tuesday showed the impact of restrictions regarding travel.

EasyJet suffered a loss in headline before taxes of 1.14 billion pounds (£1.5 billion) in September. This was at the upper end of the predictions, while SAS continued to be in negative in the August to Oktober quarter.

EasyJet stated that it is difficult to determine the impact of the new variant, but noted that travellers are still concerned about the coronavirus.

Johan Lundgren of easyJet stated to reporters that they do not see the impact as significant on short-term departures. However, the impact is still there.

SAS and easyJet noted that travelers were eager to travel after restrictions were lifted.

SAS reported that although we are cautious about the prevailing uncertainties and see that overall demand will be healthy after restrictions are removed for leisure travel as well, SAS added.