Global travel will bounce back strongly despite omicron

International travel is likely to recover soon despite progress being slowed by the omicron variant, according to AirAsia chief executive Tony Fernandes.

“I do believe that we’re at the beginning of the end,” he told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Asia” on Monday, noting that the recovery has already begun in earnest.

“The good thing is, this time last year, we had no planes flying. Now, we’ve got a large chunk of our fleet flying domestic Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia,” he said, adding that demand has been “very, very robust.”

International travel will get back to pre-Covid levels around six months after borders begin to reopen, he predicted, and said he hopes borders will start to open again in March.

After a flurry of announcements about quarantine-free travel in Asia last year, several countries including Thailand and India reinstated restrictions for some arrivals, as omicron drove up…