Omicron curbs from Japan to Spain wreak havoc on air travel

Airlines, passengers and businesses had to respond to a deluge of travel restrictions announced over the weekend to slow the spread of the omicron coronavirus variant. 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. 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 travelers 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. Spain and Switzerland tightened access for arrivals from Britain, whose travel comeback has quickly been thrown into reverse. U.K. low-cost carrier EasyJetsaid Sunday its flight schedule was operating as normal, “however we continue to monitor the situation closely.” While the full impact will get clearer over coming days, “this will be problematic for business travel -- particularly inbound into the U.K.,” said Martin Ferguson, a spokesman for American Express Global Business Travel.<br/>