Adelaide-Adelaide-NZ flights within weeks as travel bubble opens in a fortnight
A travel bubble between Australia and New Zeland will launch in two weeks’ time. South Australia will miss out on being the first state to reopen but will be “the next cab off the ranks”.
SA News
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Flights from Adelaide to Auckland could resume within weeks, with South Australia set to be the “next cab off the ranks” to join a travel bubble with New Zealand.
It will be a one-way travel bubble initially, with New Zealanders able to come to Australia.
New South Wales and the Northern Territory will be the first to reopen their borders to NZ at midnight on October 16, Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack announced on Friday.
‘Green lanes’ will be established at airports to allow New Zealanders to enter Australia without having to quarantine for two weeks and without interacting with travellers returning from other countries.
“South Australia stands ready to participate as well,” Mr McCormack said.
“I have spoken to Steven Marshall in the last half-hour. They will probably be the next cab off the ranks.”
NZ Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has yet to open the country’s border to Australians.
Mr McCormack said the decision would be up to her.
“We want to make sure that there is two-way travel,” he said.
It comes after Scott Morrison confirmed on Thursday SA would be one of the first states to reopen to New Zealand in a trans-Tasman bubble.
Mr Morrison said it was “more likely in the first instance to be a one-way bubble”.
NZ Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern indicated on Monday she would be open to a state-by-state travel bubble with Australia, potentially by December.
But she flagged Australia would need a hot spot model.
“What we’d need to be assured of is when Australia is saying they have a hotspot, that the border around that hotspot means that people aren’t able to travel into the states where we are engaging with, with trans-Tasman travel,” she told NZ radio.
Tourism Minister Simon Birmingham said on Monday that SA could be “somewhere close to the top of that pack of states” that reopen to NZ first, and was “definitely in the mix” in the Federal Government’s planning for the travel bubble.
SA’s open borders to all states but Victoria, and Adelaide’s previous direct flights with Auckland, made it a likely contender to be one of the first states, he said.
“Our government’s desire is to see as much of Australia open up as we can safely do so,” Senator Birmingham told ABC radio.
Kiwi visitors are the fourth biggest tourism market for SA.
Travel research shows they are particularly drawn to the Murray River, SA’s food and wine, driving holidays and visiting Adelaide.
SA Tourism Commission chief executive Rodney Harrex said there was “strong demand” from New Zealanders wanting to visit SA.
“A recent consumer sentiment survey in NZ showed interest in visiting SA in the next two years among Kiwis is at its highest level in four years,” he said.
About 40 per cent had friends and relatives in SA, and one in three of were planning to travel within the next six months, SATC research shows.
Mr Harrex said the state’s peak tourism body had been “very active” in NZ throughout the pandemic, with digital marketing campaigns and market research.
“As one of the first and ‘loudest’ in the market, this holds our state in good stead to make the most of this opportunity when it presents,” he said.
An Adelaide Airport spokesman the airport had been in ongoing talks with Air New Zealand, and all other international airlines, about how flights could resume once border restrictions were eased.
“When the timing is right and international borders reopen for NZ, we expect there will be strong pent up demand on trans-Tasman routes,” he said.
New South Wales, which recorded a second day with no COVID-19 cases on Monday, is also likely to be one of the first to reopen to NZ.