Travel bubbles between Adelaide, Hobart and Canberra could open by school holidays
Travel could be allowed between SA and two other states potentially by the school holidays, with plans for New Zealand not far away.
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Travel bubbles between Adelaide, Canberra and Hobart could potentially open in time for the school holidays.
Authorities are considering July 3 – the start of school holidays – as the date for a major easing of a raft of SA’s coronavirus restrictions.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison and New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern are also set to be handed the tourism industry’s plan to establish a “trans-Tasman travel bubble” later this week.
As the state on Monday recorded a week of zero cases, Premier Steven Marshall said he wanted airlines and South Australians to have as much notice as possible on his plans to incrementally reopen SA’s borders.
“What we need to do is give advance notice ... so that airlines can start thinking about what their schedules will be and also families, individuals, businesses can start thinking about their travel, especially as they lead up to the school holidays,” Mr Marshall said.
The Premier has asked the Transition Committee for more “clarity” around the decision on borders as he looks at which destinations could be part of the first stage of reopening borders.
It comes after Mr Marshall held talks with his Tasmanian counterpart on Monday night about resuming flights to Hobart as a “safe city pair”.
There are concerns a travel bubble with Canberra could make it a “backdoor” for Sydney or Melbourne, as the ACT has no border restrictions.
Mr Marshall said the distance between cities would help limit the risks. “A lot of people forget Canberra is not right next door to Sydney. In fact it is hours and hours away – it is like Adelaide to Whyalla,” he said.
The ACT was “certainly worthy of consideration” for a first travel destination given its track record of low COVID-19 cases and no community transmission, he said
Starting with just one flight per day between Adelaide and Canberra would also limit the risk, Canberra Airport chief executive Stephen Byron said.
It would be akin to reopening pubs for just a handful of customers first, he told The Advertiser: “If you've got a single daily flight between Canberra and Adelaide ... the numbers of people that might go to Sydney would be very limited.”
Mr Byron also advised against banning NSW residents and letting only ACT residents on the flights, or banning South Australians from travelling to NSW if they went to Canberra.
“Just as when we travel to Adelaide, we won't be restricted to Adelaide only,” he said.
“We might go to the Barossa and enjoy some of that great wine. I would suggest that given the number of seats on this aircraft are so low and given also that in NSW as a whole there hasn't been any community transmission cases for five days now, all the cases have been in hotels, that the risks are mitigated.”
SA Labor leader Peter Malinauskas said safety needed to be a priority. “If a travel bubble is instituted, the Premier needs to explain what systems will be put in place to protect South Australians, given there is an open border between the ACT and NSW,” he said.
A Qantas spokeswoman said the airline would be “looking to add flights” when borders opened and travel restrictions were lifted. She would not be drawn on specific routes.
