Australian airlines have recently declared that international tourism is unlikely to continue by Christmas. Because of too much ambiguity surrounding quarantine requirements and vaccine passports, one source dismissed the government’s timetable addressing it as callow.
Even when the international border reopens, flights in and out of Australia will serve at a fraction of pre-pandemic levels due to home quarantine requirements, i.e. most likely a travel ban is what the airlines are indicating.
That means Australians eager to fly overseas could face difficulty securing tickets, the Board of Airline Representatives of Australia (Bara), which represents airlines including Emirates, Etihad and United, said on Wednesday.
The federal government has foreshadowed the international border will resume by Christmas with seven-day home quarantine for vaccinated travellers entering the country.
A core chunk of pre-pandemic travellers were tourists and foreigners without an Australian home to isolate themselves in. They are unlikely to pick the country as a destination in early 2022 if they have to give up a week and pay for quarantine accommodation–even if it can be a holiday destination.
As a result, international airlines travel guidelines have to be laid for most of their Australian services in the coming months that will repatriate Australians only. That will serve as a stepping stone before they are ready to facilitate outbound and inbound tourism in several months’ time.
The airlines’ frustration appears at odds with comments from the New South Wales premier, Gladys Berejiklian, and the prime minister, Scott Morrison, that fully vaccinated arrivals could bypass hotel quarantine when international travel resumed.
Bara’s tone was also in stark contrast to the fanfare triggered by Qantas flights earlier this month when it advertised international flights from mid-December.
The suggestion that international flights would soon resume sparked excitement in Australia, according to a survey of traveller sentiment, which suggested 59% of people planned to catch a flight, either international or domestic, by March.
However, uncertainty over quarantine and border rules remains a barrier to Australians’ booking holidays.
Of the 4,500 Australians who responded to Inmarsat’s 2021 Passenger Confidence Tracker survey, 53% said they were concerned about quarantine requirements and 40% said they were worried about unpredictable border closures affecting their travel.
Foreign airlines want clarity on key issues, including how home quarantine will work when the international border reopens.
The board wants to know from Australian governments: how hotel quarantine caps for unvaccinated travellers will work; how airlines will recognise Australians immunised with foreign vaccines; how tickets will be sold and vaccine requirements enforced.
Whether a negative pre-departure test will be required to enter Australia; and if rules for aircrews will be relaxed.
Barry Abrams, the executive director of Bara, mentioned that the existing international ticketing system used by airlines did not allow them to get a record of vaccination, nor automatically check the authenticity of that proof, at the point of booking. It was also unclear how foreign vaccine proof would be recognised.
Australian border officials needed to explain how they would police vaccination status and confirm that Australia would be responsible for it. There was the issue, too, of how to sell seats on flights for unvaccinated passengers for carriers willing to take them as airlines remained in the dark as to what their passenger allocations would be.
Another key issue for airlines is whether the requirement for all arrivals into Australia to provide a negative PCR test 72 hours before departure will still be in place for fully vaccinated travellers heading into home quarantine.
He said that airlines were seeing up to 5% of Australians booked on flights home forced to abandon their seats at the last minute due to a positive PCR test far higher than the proportion of positive cases in hotel quarantine right now.
Singapore Airlines, which is also a member of Bara, was earlier this month forced to cut the number of flights flying into Australia, citing a lack of information from the government.
More than 45,000 Australians stranded overseas have registered for government assistance to return home. Australia’s current international passenger intake is 2,285 people a week and has been significantly cut during the country’s current Delta variant outbreak.
Also, check Australia Ready To Reopen For International Students After Omicron Break
Until the new terms come out on lifting travel ban Australia, this will be the condition standing.