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The airline has announced that it will operate four weekly flights to Accra, Ghana via Lagos from 29 September, the fourth new destination launched by the national carrier of the State of Qatar since the start of the pandemic. The Accra service will be operated by the airline’s Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft featuring 22 seats in business class and 232 seats in economy class.

The Ethiopian national airline has announced that, in conjunction with the re-opening of South Africa's borders from 1 October, it will resume commercial passenger flights to and from Johannesburg and Cape Town. A full list of operational flights across the airline's route network can be viewed on their website.

The country’s government has announced that it has extended its current COVID-19 restrictions for a two further weeks until at least 18 October. Among the restrictions is a limit of 50 people for both public and private gatherings.

The state government of Australia's Victoria has announced that a night-time curfew imposed on the city of Melbourne will be lifted from the morning of 28 September. The curfew suspension was announced alongside other amendments to restrictions, including an increase on the number of people to be allowed at public gatherings.

The country's government has said that effective today, 28 September, it will re-open its borders for the purposes of tourism, but will continue to operate on a 'red' and 'green' classification system to determine entry requirements based on passengers' country of origin. Passengers coming from ‘green’ zone countries can enter Ukraine restriction free, while ‘red’ zone passengers will have to quarantine for 14 days, with the option of COVID-19 PCR testing to reduce this period.

The country's government has announced that it is officially re-opening its borders for international flights on 5 October. Some of the first countries that will initially be allowed to operate flights for passengers travelling for business or professional purposes include Mexico, Chile, Brazil, Argentina, Spain and the U.S. All arrivals will be required to present proof of a negative COVID-19 PCR test result, obtained a maximum of 48 hours prior to arrival; passengers who do not present this could be denied boarding or will face a 14-day quarantine upon arrival.

The country’s government has removed Germany, Poland and Lithuania from its travel 'green list', leaving just four countries exempt from a 14-day quarantine for arriving passengers; as a result, travellers arriving from all countries other than Cyprus, Finland, Latvia and Liechtenstein must go into quarantine for 14 days from 28 September.

The government of the United Arab Emirates will resume issuing visas to foreign visitors for all seven of its regions as of today, 25 September, after a six-month suspension imposed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Dubai, the region’s tourism and business hub and one of the seven emirates that make up the UAE, had already lifted its own visa ban in July.

The country plans to begin a gradual re-opening of its borders to international travel from 1 October; however, the president has warned that entry may be limited to countries deemed to have low COVID-19 infection rates, and a list is yet to be released. Anyone who is permitted to enter will be required to present a negative COVID-19 test result obtained a maximum of 72 hours prior, or otherwise will face mandatory quarantine at their own cost.

The country’s government has extended current measures to curb COVID-19 until at least 14 October. Among the restrictions are limited on gatherings, opening times for many establishments and a ban on many public events.

The airline has announced that it will start to offer rapid airport COVID-19 testing for passengers travelling from San Francisco to Hawaii from 15 October; this is the first such pilot program announced by a U.S. airline. Passengers should schedule their tests ahead of time, which will be conducted in the terminal and yield results within 15 minutes. There will also be a mail-in test option available.

The country’s government yesterday, 24 September, issued COVID-19 related travel warnings for Prague, as well as French regions that include Paris and Cote d’Azur; warnings are also being issued for Andorra, Argentina, Bahrain, Costa Rica, Israel, Kuwait and the Maldives. All of the most recent warnings will take effect from 28 September.

The airline has said today that it will resume direct flights to China from the Nordic region from 29 September, following their suspension in January. Weekly flights from Copenhagen to Shanghai will operate initially, with flights to Beijing expected to resume by the end of October.

The government of China has said that from 28 September, foreigners holding visas and permits for work, personal matters and family reunions will be permitted to enter the country without the need to re-validate their visa; anyone with an expired visa will also now be able to re-apply.

The French government unveiled tighter COVID-19 restrictions yesterday, 23 September, including a map of ‘danger zones’ around the country. Designated areas include Marseille, where local authorities have been given days to enforce increased measures. Paris and its suburbs, plus Lille and Toulouse were also declared ‘reinforced danger zones’, entailing further restrictions on event attendance, gatherings and early closures for some businesses.

The airline has optimised their schedules in order to offer flights facilitating same-day business trips in Europe during October; they are now offering a selection of pre-09.00 outbound and post-17.00 (GMT+1) inbound flights between London Heathrow in the UK and key destination cities in Germany, Italy, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Belgium, the Netherlands and Poland, among others.

The airline said yesterday, 23 September, that it will not further expand its flight offering at this time, instead maintaining a restricted schedule during the winter months, including operating at around 55% of capacity in November.

The country's government is reportedly set to unveil tighter COVID-19 restrictions for Paris today, 23 September, following a cabinet meeting. Among the measures are expected to be a ban on public gatherings of more than 10 people, as well as restrictions on alcohol sales and crowd numbers at major events.

The country's government has said that although restrictions are not yet set to change for those arriving for the purposes of tourism, from October the country will begin to allow some foreign visitors who are planning to stay for three months or more; this includes categories such as students and medical workers from any country; entry will be limited to 1,000 people per day.

The airline has announced five new routes due to launch from 17 December, which aim to primarily serve leisure travellers. Alaska Airlines will fly seasonally until 12 April 2021 between: Los Angeles and Cancun; Palm Springs, California and Boise, Idaho; Palm Springs, California and Reno, Nevada. The airline will also fly daily, year-round between Los Angeles and Reno and twice-daily, year-round between Palm Springs and San Jose, California. In addition, last month the airline said it would end change fees long-term on all flights for fare classes other than Saver.