Global air travel recovery will remain weak in near term due to omicron uncertainties, aviation analyst says

International air travel will likely remain sluggish in the near term as uncertainties over the omicron Covid variant linger, according to an aviation analyst. Brendan Sobie, independent analyst at Sobie Aviation, said omicron has hit passenger confidence in “travel right now because things are changing every day.” “The recovery we were hoping we were going to have continuing into the first half of next year, its just not going to happen. That’s going to be a setback,” Sobie said Thursday. “Because we don’t know too much about this variant and we don’t know what’s around the corner.” While much remains unknown about omicron, the World Health Organization warned that the variant is spreading “significantly faster” than the delta strain and could change the course of the pandemic. The highly infectious variant has now been detected in at least 89 countries and forced some governments to impose stricter containment measures during the holiday season.<br/>