An aviation firm has carried out the first tests in India of longer-range drone deliveries, as hopes grow that they could deliver medicines as well as Covid-19 vaccines to remote areas.

Moscow had previously banned flights to the resorts of Hurghada and Sharm el-Sheikh after a plane carrying Russian vacationers blew up over the Sinai Peninsula in 2015.

The US plans to put most of the 10,000 Haitian migrants under a bridge on the Mexico border on planes home. US authorities can bypass asylum seekers' rights based on a Trump-era pandemic order.

Commercial flights to the Canary Island have been called off due to an "accumulation of ash" in the air. A recent volcanic eruption on the island has forced the evacuation of thousands of residents.

Tropical Cyclone Shaheen made landfall in Oman Sunday, disrupting flights. The storm hit early evening and has already killed three.

Streets remain flooded and buildings damaged after tropical Cyclone Shaheen lashed Oman, leaving two workers dead in a landslide and a child killed by flash flooding. Flights were cancelled or delayed as wind speeds reached 120 kilometres an hour across Oman's north coast.

Southwest Airlines has said air traffic control issues are behind the cancellation of hundreds of flights. The pilots' union has denied reports its members staged a work stoppage to protest the airline's vaccine mandate.

The Dutch public health institute said in a statement that testing was continuing on the samples of 61 people who tested positive for COVID after arriving from South Africa.

Japan has stopped new bookings onto incoming flights after identifying the first cases of the Omicron strain of Covid-19. The country has also tightened its quarantine requirements for all arriving passengers, and extended a ban on non-citizens coming from ten countries in southern Africa. Travel companies have seen their shares tumble in recent days as governments tighten border rules in response to the new strain. Also today, Australia's economy feels the pinch from the recent lockdowns.

German airline Lufthansa is slashing its winter schedule as a result of reduced demand amid the omicron variant. Spohr said the airline was running just 60% of flights compared to the pre-pandemic year 2019, with "roughly half" the number of passengers.

Dutch airline KLM announced on Saturday that it is canceling flights into Ukraine, a move that comes amid heightened tensions between Moscow and Kyiv. The airline said the decision was made after “an extensive safety analysis,” noting that it followed “adjusted travel advice to code red.”

Staff shortages exacerbated by a strike have caused huge delays at Amsterdam's Schiphol airport during the holiday season. The airport has now asked airlines to reduce the number of passengers by cutting flights.