Australia recently halved the number of international flight arrivals it’ll be accepting, as Prime Minister Scott Morrison works on unveiling the country’s plan to get out of the COVID crisis.
The prime minister has called on Aussies to get vaccinated in order to deal with the pandemic, but indicated that it might take until 2022 to get to stage 2 of their 4-stage plan to reopen the country.
The cuts to the AU’s international arrivals caps is aimed at cutting down on the pressure that hotel quarantine facilities are dealing with, and line up with the calls from several Aussie states, but this decision wasn’t the one favoured by NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian, nor Morrison himself.
The development will lead to the Australian international travel cap tighten from 6,070 to 3,035 by July 14, 2021. Sydney takes about half of all of those international arrivals, which means that the city will only see 1,505 once the changed cap is implemented.
Morrison stated that leaders wanted to minimise the effects for people who’ve already planned their flights. As of Early July 2021, there are about 34,000 Aussies registered with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, looking to get back to the country.
Large parts of the AU are under lockdown as a means to supress community transmission, especially with the new Delta variant around.
Morrison states that it would be a while until the AU got back to normal, with the country still at the first stage out of 4. Moving onto the following stages would be dependent on Aussie vaccination rates, but the national cabinet have yet to agree as to what those thresholds would be.
The prime minister had stated that these thresholds would be based on expert scientific advice and empirical data and modelling, and they believe that the AU government would be able to offer a vaccine to every Aussie who wants to get inoculated.
The second phase of this 4-stage plan will be about minimising serious illnesses, hospitalisations and fatalities from COVID-19, with lockdowns to only happen in extreme conditions.
People are closely watching for news on Australia’s international travel cap, especially with regards to how it would affect travel.
The travel cap led to airlines having trouble operating long-haul flights to Australia with about 60 passengers onboard, which has led to a price hike for the airlines who are keeping their operations going.
Data from popular booking platforms showed that the average price for tickets for London-Sydney flights went up from AU$5,229 to AU$36,499 for a single one-way economy ticket as July 2021 came around.
The pricing for flights from London to Sydney via LA meant that it now costs more than AU$26,000/person, indicative of the price spike. One particular example is the cost of a United Airlines flight from New York to Sydney, which jumped up to about $82,000.
In response, AU Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt warned airlines on their pricing, which they feel could be a chance to capitalise on people’s desire to fly back home.
That being said, there’s no doubt that travel has been hit hard, with platforms like www.portdouglaslimo.com.au having to make serious adjustments to their operations, and airlines like Emirates outright suspending operations.
