Germany plans to restrict all flights to and from South Africa and the United Kingdom after a new variant of COVID-19 has been detected in these countries.
A spokesperson said that Germany is working on new travel regulations for the country in light of new developments around the virus.
South African tourism authorities are concerned over the blow to the industry as more and more countries seem to withdraw from visiting South Africa over the usually-busy December period.
Editor of SA Flyer Magazine, Guy Leitch, sees this as a setback for the recovery of the airline industry that has ‘kicked the recovery period down to the middle of next year,’ according to the SABC.
‘It is bad because it obviously affects the number of South Africans travelling to Germany as tourists. We must remember that airlines are a two-way thing so if there are no South Africans travelling to Germany, there are not going to be flights to bring Germans to South Africa which will further hit the recovery of international tourism to South Africa,’ Leitch added.
Recently, British Airways dropped Durban from its destination list as it is reducing its network due to financial strain.
According to TimesLive, El Salvador has also banned travellers who have been in the UK or South Africa in the last 30 days.
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