In the international arrivals hall of Cape Town Airport, only a single taxi driver sits on Sunday morning and listens to a church service on his cell phone.

Usually several flights would land at this time.

A banner reading “Africa's award-winning airport is now receiving 10 million passengers” is swinging from the ceiling.

Claudia Bröll

Freelance Africa correspondent based in Cape Town.

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It dates back to pre-Corona times.

Today only the Lufthansa flights from Munich and Frankfurt are on the international arrival board.

In the departure hall one floor up, the check-in desks of all non-African airlines are closed except for Lufthansa.

The queue of Lufthansa passengers ready for departure runs through the entire terminal.

The German airline says it wants to continue flying.

Last week, South African scientists announced the discovery of Omikron, a new corona variant.

Since then, events have rolled over.

In the meantime, numerous countries have passed temporary flight bans or stricter quarantine rules for travelers from southern Africa.

Only German citizens are allowed to enter Germany

The German government again classified South Africa and seven other countries as virus variant areas.

Only German citizens are allowed to enter Germany, they have to submit a PCR test and be in quarantine for 14 days, including those who have been vaccinated.

Omikron infected people have now also been identified in Germany, Great Britain, Belgium and Hong Kong.

Tourists and locals in southern Africa have been completely unprepared for the travel restrictions.

In many places there were chaotic scenes on Saturday.

Passengers booked on flights that have now been canceled tried to rebook on other airlines.

But the main tourist season has started.

Numerous flights were already booked out beforehand.

A German entrepreneur from Australia has been struggling to fly back since Friday.

Originally he wanted to stay in Cape Town for a week, then he broke off his stay after three days.

For the return flight to Sydney he has to take a detour via Johannesburg, Frankfurt, London and Darwin.

The journey should take more than 38 hours.

Leaving South Africa can cost a small fortune

He doesn't know where to quarantine and how to get the entry forms for Australia.

“You have to go with the flow,” says the three times vaccinated.

Although the trip cost him a small fortune, he takes it all calmly.

In the past ten days, he has tested negative for Corona six times.

Others are not that relaxed.

In front of a test station at Johannesburg Airport, passengers got angry because only one nurse was on duty at 10 p.m.

In addition to the vaccination certificate, the passengers now also needed a test.

In front of a closed British Airways counter, a couple was frantically trying to find out the prices for private jets.

There were no more rooms available in the hotels around the airport.

At the same time, the executive director of the Cape Town Tourism Association appealed to passengers to contact their airline or the embassy instead of meeting at the airport.

Too many people are there because they hoped to get hold of a flight.

The travel industry is set back by Omikron

The travel restrictions are another damper for tourism and the economy. It was not long ago that Lufthansa celebrated the resumption of Munich flights on a Cape Town roof terrace with white and blue flags and wheat beer. Everywhere in the country one had prepared for the first tourist season since the beginning of the pandemic. Tour buses could be seen on the streets again, cruise ships were supposed to dock in the port. The prices for hotel accommodation rose sharply.

The abrupt travel restrictions have met with criticism. The number of infections has been increasing for a few days, but from a low level. The seven-day incidence is relatively low at 50. The foreign ministry complained that the bans punished South Africa for the scientists' expertise in discovering a new variant of Covid. The variant had also appeared in other countries, but the reaction was not the same.

The South African government, on the other hand, appears to be cautious about restrictions in its own country.

At the weekend, President Cyril Ramaphosa was informed by his Corona advisory team.

Business associations appealed to the government to introduce compulsory vaccinations instead of imposing a new lockdown.

Almost a quarter of the population has been fully vaccinated so far.

The new variant has also slowed regional air traffic on the continent.

After Mauritius, Morocco and the Seychelles, Angola stopped flights to South Africa and the surrounding countries at the weekend.