Last checked at 
* Airlines counting cost of Omicron virus variant
* Discovery could delay recovery by a year - HSBC
* Some travellers cancelling or delaying bookings
* Shares rebound after sharp Friday drop
(Adds comments from Biden and IATA, background details)
By Jamie Freed, Clara-Laeila Laudette and Rajesh Kumar Singh
Nov 29 (Reuters) - Airlines are scrambling to limit the
impact of the latest coronavirus variant on their networks,
while delays in bookings are threatening an already-fragile
recovery for global tourism.
Shares in airlines bounced back with the rest of the market
on Monday after a sharp sell-off on Friday when the discovery of
a new coronavirus mutation took a heavy toll on stocks.
The latest outbreak, first reported in southern Africa,
dealt a blow to the industry just as it had recovery in its
sights, especially following the easing of U.S.-bound travel.
Multiple countries including Japan, the United States,
Britain and Israel have imposed travel curbs in order to slow
the spread of the Omicron coronavirus variant.
"The hope for U.S. and European carriers had been that
opening the Atlantic would allow them to operate long-haul
routes on a cash-positive basis, but border restrictions make it
even harder to get the demand in," said James Halstead, managing
partner at consultancy Aviation Strategy.
A pickup in long-haul traffic is seen critical for many
carriers, which have been left with severely strained balance
sheets following the plunge in air travel last year.
Southern Africa accounts for only a tiny portion of the
world's international travel, but sudden border restrictions and
route suspensions have left some carriers with an uncertain
future.
Spain's Air Europa, caught in a months-long acquisition
process by IAG-owned rival Iberia, which British and
European regulators have so far been loath to approve, is
especially vulnerable to renewed travel curbs.
President Joe Biden said while the restrictions were needed
to give the United States time to get more people vaccinated, he
did not anticipate the need for additional curbs.
But Willie Walsh, head of global airlines industry body
IATA, called the restrictions a "knee-jerk reaction." In an
interview with BBC Radio, he urged authorities to institute
"sensible" testing regimes and avoid measures that have caused
"massive" financial damage to the industry in the past.
"This virus cannot be beaten in the way some of these
measures would have people believe," said Walsh. "We have to
adjust. We have to take sensible measures."
Rising COVID-19 cases as well as the new border restrictions
have prompted analysts to adjust their outlook for the industry.
Analysts at HSBC, for example, expect the industry's recovery
would be pushed back by a year.
It is a setback for companies including the interconnecting
Gulf carriers and Lufthansa, which depends heavily on
transit traffic at its Frankfurt base, analysts said.
Big carriers acted swiftly to protect their hubs by curbing
passenger travel from southern Africa, fearing that the spread
of a new virus would trigger restrictions from other
destinations beyond the immediately affected regions, industry
sources said.
"Your whole network is at risk when running a hub," Halstead
said.
BOOKINGS DELAYED
Singapore deferred plans to open its borders to vaccinated
travellers from the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Saudi Arabia
because those countries are transit hubs for African travel.
Singapore Airlines said it had converted some of
its flights to Johannesburg and Cape Town to cargo-only.
Qatar Airways said it would no longer accept passengers
travelling from five southern African countries, but would fly
passengers to those countries in line with current restrictions.
Concerns have also been raised about future bookings.
Some Australian travellers booked through Flight Centre
Travel Group Ltd have cancelled or delayed trips amid
new requirements for arrivals to isolate at home or a hotel for
72 hours while awaiting the results of a COVID-19 test, a
spokesperson for the travel agency said.
In Germany, DER Touristik said that after very positive
bookings at the beginning of autumn it had seen a reluctance to
book, including for southern African destinations.
Some companies seemed exasperated by the latest threat to
business-as-usual.
"It's too early to make any predictions," a spokesperson for
Spanish carrier Iberia said. "As for contingency plans, do the
flexibility and capacity to adapt that we have demonstrated
throughout the pandemic seem insignificant to you?"
(Reporting by Rajesh Kumar Singh in Chicago, Jamie Freed in
Sydney, Chen Lin in Singapore, Tommy Lund in London,
Clara-Laeila Laudette in Madrid, Ilona Wissenbach in Frankfurt,
Tim Hepher in Paris
Editing by Mark Heinrich and Leslie Adler)
