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.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has described the end of the eruption on the tiny Canary island as the "best Christmas present." The volcano flared for more than 85 days, causing nearly €1 billion in damage.

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.

A number of Nigerian airlines are halting domestic flights from Monday (May 9) until further notice, due to the high cost of fuel. Domestic flights have been disrupted since March as some operators started to cancel internal schedules while others delayed operations, citing scarcity of fuel.

The first flight to take asylum seekers from the United Kingdom to Rwanda can go ahead next week, the High Court in London ruled after a judge dismissed attempts to win an injunction to stop the deportation to the East African nation.

Airlines hoping to cash in on renewed demand are facing labor agitation after firing swathes of workers during the pandemic.

The carrier's ground staff went on strike, prompting more than 1,000 flights to be canceled. The walkout comes as air travel industry faces several crises.

Dubai's Emirates airline says it plans to reduce the number of flights to Nigeria's Lagos because of trouble repatriating funds.

Emirates Airlines says it will suspend all flights to and from Nigeria by September the first due to its inability to repatriate about $85million revenue.