By Naadiya Adams

Two of the United Kingdom’s most prominent airlines, British Airways and Virgin Atlantic will resume flights between South Africa and the UK on Wednesday.

The announcement comes as the UK put South Africa back on the red list becoming the first nation to once again ground flights between South Africa and the kingdom following the discovery of a new variant on African soil.

We have set up a dedicated team to talk to customers in #SouthAfrica to help provide advice and support. Customers in South Africa can call our local customer helpline: +27 10 344 0130 to be connected as quickly as possible to a member of our team.

— British Airways (@British_Airways) November 26, 2021

The discovery of Omicron was first announced last week Thursday by South Africa’s Department of Health and scientists from the Network for Genomic Surveillance.

The weekend saw the country sent into a tizzy after dozens of countries began closing off their borders to South Africa and its neighbouring countries.

President Cyril Ramaphosa on Sunday evening appealed to the international community to stop the ban.

In an interview with Radio Islam, Business Insider’s Phillip De Wet says the ban by the UK was premature.

“When the UK announced the ban it seemed like a complete overreaction at the time and I looked at that and said well that’s a government that’s in trouble domestically which is using this as an excuse to change the narrative,” said De Wet.

According to the veteran reporter, in spite of the fact that we now know so much more about the Corona virus, many countries still opt to close their borders in a “hunkering down mentality” and it is a trend that is unlikely to change.

“Unfortunately these kinds of bans are never dismantled quickly, they very easy to throw up. Scientists in South Africa are saying there’s a new variant, let’s quickly throw up a travel ban,” said De Wet.

He says the stance is motivated politically, and while scientifically one may argue they make no sense, De Wet says people are afraid and it is what the people want to see.

De Wet believes the public implore the international ban, which for them is a sense of security, even falsely so.

But as the UK lifts its ban on South Africa, many countries are expected to follow suit.

“It will be a flow of dominoes but a lot slow one, some countries will open up faster than others and we don’t think that mandatory quarantine will last for too long,” explained De Wet.

He says the hotel quarantine approach is something many countries are moving away from though the UK does still insist on it.

It’s been only two months since the UK removed SA from the infamous red list, now two months later, the country is right back where it started and the tourism industry is left to pick up the pieces ahead of the busiest time of the year.