nancypants

well. I believe they were meant to be transferring A320s from JQ once the a321XLR (or whatever they are) started arriving. Also the old JM order

Maelstrom

Australian citizens are banned from leaving the country, with exceptions made under certain circumstances.

mikalee

Citizens of a country are always allowed to re-enter their own country under international law. Ie Australians will always be allowed re-entry hence the way to restrict travel is to restrict the ability to depart. What local laws permit to happen to a citizen upon return to their country of citizenship is a different matter ie enforced quarantine, Etc

LHR/MEL/Europe FF

it's almost laughable... Qantas only ever flew to a handful of international destinations before covid... so taking account of 'bubble destinations' and new Zealand, they're pretty much only cutting out a couple of places

Koru Flyer

The challenge is that the 14 day quarantine was a fast reaction to a massive problem of inward spread by visitors and returning citizens, which I get and support. Now finding out that they were not tested routinely is bizarre at best. As we lost a crucial opportunity to understand Covid. For example, what if we found out that everyone of those 4-5% positive were all positive on arrival. Then we would not need to quarantine everyone just test and quarantine some.

Rather than QF asking for job keeper and other government support, would it not be better that they money be spent on how to correctly protect Australians from inward travellers. I am lost that the only suggestion to date was that somehow business travellers are less likely to be infected than returned citizens. I am sure that our struggling unis would love to have the research spend and support foreign students again.

we would have an innovative border solutions, QF could get back up earlier and support jobs and government spend would be based on solutions rather than support. Just saying.

KF

Dave Noble

What is bizarre about it - they were being quarantined for a period of time likely for synmptoms to appear

Keeping the borders closed to those that don't have a right to be admitted, seems a remarkably sensible approach and extending quarantine to those that choose not to be tested also seems sound

Additional testing at the start would (a) have a cost and (b) even less likely to be agreed to by the arriving person

For businesses, I expect that they will manage to adapt to find how to do business with less need for time wasted in travelling

nancypants

There was also tremendous shortages of testing kits, swabs and the PPE necessary for safe taking of COVID tests in the early days

this isn’t really a pandemic well suited to retrospection

Cedar Jet

When borders open and demand is there Qantas will fly and even bring the A380 back if they have to. Worst case scenarios are always used and only as accurate as current circumstances. All this doom and gloom is proving worse than the virus itself!

warakorn

One question: The EU is contemplating to open its external border to Australian and NZ-residents from July.
One requirement is that those countries must open their border to EU residents, as well.

If I count 1+1 that means that EU residents may travel to OZ and NZ from July 2020.

So how does it fit the notion of of the OZ government to keep its borders closed (possibly) until 2021 - or not letting OZ citizens leaving OZ?

Source: https://m.faz.net/aktuell/politik/au...-16836759.html

Dave Noble

It is possible that Australia will allow travel subject to a 14 day quarantine on arrival, but I would doubt very much that Australia will be reopening its borders anytime soon

Much more likely, I think, is that Australia will simply not be on the list if recirpocal arrangements would be needed

That the EU is contemplating something, does not mean that it is going to be feasible. I would really hope that the Australian government would not be so stupid, when it is down to a few hundred cases, to open the floodgates to allow those from Europe into Australia to spread infection

Koru Flyer

I don’t think anyone is suggesting to open the floodgates. However finding other evidence based approaches to the border is required.

at the moment we seem locked in this wait until a vaccine approach. If we are very very lucky that would be end of 2021, and at what level of success as it definitely Is not be 100% and will be prioritised to developing countries. Will we prop up the whole system indefinitely while the rest of the world opens and seeks competitive advantage.

just saying serious thought is required, Iceland is in a similar situation and is at least being proactive.

KF

DownUnderFlyer

[mod hat] Just a friendly reminder that this is the QF forum. [/mod hat]

Freespirit1

We are still waiting on a vaccine for SARS...it seems to be that students are arriving (the hostel I have been waiting patiently in for travel to resume is suddenly filling up), all my Qantas flights bar March 2021 to New York have been cancelled. I have faith that the 'wait for a vaccine' is not going to influence the border closure for much longer.

nsx

Has all non-Kiwi international service been removed from the schedule? I just looked for SYD-SFO in March 2021 cash fares and Qantas' website shows only AA codeshare flights.

Dave Noble

I think and hope that border closures will continue until the spread of the disease is under control

Allowing people to come , subject to quarantine at own expense, would seem a reasonable approach