International travel is likely to remain subdued until the end of the year as countries reintroduce tough restrictions to control Covid-19 infections, the head of Dubai-based airline Emirates has said.

“It is going to take longer than I would have hoped and I think probably we are going to see some difficulties. We are not going to see [the] capacity return that I hoped [for] in July and August, I think, maybe [it will return] in the last quarter this year,” Clark told a virtual summit by aviation consultancy CAPA.

Clark said he expected governments would continue to close borders and place restrictions on international travel until they get a better understanding of how to deal with the new variants.