- Countries with higher risk levels.
- Countries opening their borders for vaccinated migrants.
- World-famous Indonesian island with lowest visitors ever recorded.
Europe is being swept by Omicron. The United States is gearing up for a flurry of holiday travel this winter. In addition, Australia and St. Kitts and Nevis, a Caribbean island nation, are easing visitor restrictions as reported by CNN.
Omicron spreading
This is definitely NOT what we asked for from Santa.
In the United States, holiday travel is set to reach almost pre-pandemic levels, with 109 million Americans expected to be on the move.
We’ve got some expert advice for safer, smoother travel.
And please, be kind to your flight attendants — with disruptive passenger incidents massively on the rise, they’re going through a lot right now.
France, which has nine southern African countries on its strictest “scarlet red list,” is banning nonessential travel from the UK.
Countries with risk
On Monday, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention added Italy, Mauritius, and Greenland to its highest-risk travel list.
All have been upgraded to “Level 4: Covid-19 Very High,” which corresponds to areas where more than 500 cases per 100,000 people have been reported in the last 28 days. Over 80 destinations have already been upgraded to Level 4.
Malaysia has been demoted from Level 4 to Level 3, while Jamaica, the Philippines, and the Republic of Congo have all been demoted from Level 3 to Level 2.
Countries opening-up
For the first time since the outbreak began, Australia reopened its borders to vaccinated skilled migrants and international students on Wednesday. In Australia, several domestic limitations for vaccinated interstate travellers have also been eliminated.
St. Kitts and Nevis, a Caribbean island government, has eased restrictions for foreign air travellers ahead of the holiday season, allowing fully vaccinated guests to arrive without having to test or be quarantined. The island’s tourist officials predict that the week of December 12 will be the biggest for cruise travel since 2020.
Superjumbo delivered
The last ever Airbus A380 — the world’s largest passenger aeroplane — was delivered to its client airline Emirates on Thursday in London, nearly three years after Airbus announced it was being phased out.
Pilots took the drone on its final test flight over northeast Germany the day before delivery, leaving a love message in the sky and following a heart-shaped route map.
However, there should be plenty of opportunities to fly on an A380 in the years ahead. According to aviation analytics firm Cirium, there are 76 superjumbos in service, 165 in storage, and only eight have been retired so yet.
International visitor count
The Indonesian island of Bali received approximately 6.2 million international visitors in 2019. They’ve logged 45 so far this year.
Because the island’s Ngurah Rai International Airport has been blocked from international flights for nearly the whole year, almost all of those few tourists arrived by private yacht. Despite the fact that the airport reopened to international flights in October, it has only handled local flights so far, mostly from Jakarta.
Foreign visitors to Bali must get a $300 business visa, undergo PCR testing, and purchase specific health insurance.
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Source: CNN
