SYDNEY (Reuters) – The reaction by international governments to the Omicron variant of COVID-19 has pushed back the timing a travel recovery, the chief executive of Hawaiian Airlines said on Tuesday.
“It would be naive to see we didn’t take a setback as policymakers reacted very quickly to the Omicron variant,” Hawaiian Airlines CEO Peter Ingram said at a CAPA Centre for Aviation event.
“We are going to have to see what develops in this space in the days ahead.”
Before the Omicron variant hit there were encouraging signs that travel restrictions in key markets like Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand were beginning to ease, he said.
International arrivals to Hawaii are running at around 5% of pre-pandemic levels, Ingram said.
(Reporting by Jamie Freed; Editing by Tom Hogue)
