Nearing Vaccination Targets, Australian Airlines Prepare for Resumption of International Travel

126

As Australia pushes towards its target of an 80% vaccination rate, Qantas, the country’s flagship carrier, is banking on the country reopening its borders to international travel sooner than expected, the airline said recently.

Details on the Reopening

The Qantas Group eyed December this year for the resumption of international flights from Australia to “COVID-19-safe destinations,” including North America, the United Kingdom, and Asia, with flights to the United States “likely” starting in mid-December, the airline said on August 26^th. It’s an ambitious goal to say the least, one solely dependent on Australia’s progress towards meeting its vaccination threshold by the end of the year, which the government said would jumpstart the gradual reopening of the country.

“The prospect of flying overseas might feel a long way off, especially with New South Wales and Victoria in lockdown, but the current pace of the vaccine rollout means we should have a lot more freedom in a few months’ time,” Qantas Group CEO Alan Joyce said in a press statement. “It’s obviously up to the government in terms of exactly how and when our international borders re-open, but with Australia on track to meet the 80 per cent trigger agreed by National Cabinet by the end of the year, we need to plan ahead for what is a complex restart process.”

Resuming International Travel

Australia’s flag carrier previously said they didn’t expect to be transporting international passengers via long-haul flights until October 2021 at the earliest. The airline announced more than $1 billion in annual losses for fiscal year 2021 on Aug. 26, citing a “diabolical” year of pandemic-related travel restrictions.

In July 2021, the Australian National Cabinet outlined a four-phased plan toward reopening the country to international visitors, hinging on their ability to fully vaccinate at least 80 % of their eligible adult population. Just over 36% of Australians over the age of 16 are fully vaccinated as of September 1^st, per data from the Australian Immunization Register. In March 2021, Australian Finance Minister Simon Birmingham said that the country’s borders were unlikely to reopen until the middle or end of 2022.