Australia is opening the borders after COVID19. The media today relayed information that was long overdue for a few weeks. The schedule for the restart of post-coronavirus tourism offered by the Tourism Restart Taskforce has just been published and the first flight date revealed. This schedule should (hopefully) be approved by the Australian government very soon.
Opening of the tourist “bubble” between Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific
The borders are opening and Australians will be allowed to travel to New Zealand and the Pacific from July 1.
At the last Tourism Restart Taskforce meeting on May 22nd, the task force approved a schedule for the return of domestic and international travel. The Minister of Tourism, Simon Birmingham, participated in this last meeting. This morning, a plan was presented to the government for a “validation test flight” between Canberra and Wellington on July 1. The first flight is expected to carry government officials and journalists. Passengers will not need to be quarantined for 14 days and will be allowed to return home.
International tourism recovery plan
The task force has asked the Ministry of Health to determine which other countries may no longer be at risk from September. In fact, the plan here is to create other “travel bubbles” with the “safe” countries from next September.
“New Zealand travel will commence on July 1 and from 10 September we will consider whether other bubbles can commence”
SAID JOHN HART, PRESIDENT OF THE AUSTRALIAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE AND TOURISM.
But Hart said the date would depend on health advice. Countries will be included after being deemed safe by Australian health authorities.
The timetable is “ambitious” and the final decision will be made by the governments of New Zealand and Australia, but several key departments are said to be working on these dates.
In absolute terms, it is expected that all international travel will start again from December 15, 2020.
The security measures put in place
The next international flights after COVID are expected to be very different from what we have experienced so far. In particular, measures to manage the use of toilets on planes and the reduction of catering services will be put in place. However, there is no question of removing seats to respect social distancing. Some studies consider that air travel is not particularly more at risk and that would make flights unprofitable for airlines.
Some airports have already installed temperature controls and travelers can expect these protocols to be in place at each airport before international travel resumes.
The International Association of Travel Agents predicts that “airlines will have 50% pre-COVID capacity by the end of 2020 and will only be able to recover their pre-COVID capacity by the end of 2022”.
Source : 7news.com.au
