Queensland border wall falls as Qantas, Virgin restart flights
A grandmother’s dash to Brisbane for just a day to see her granddaughters was one of many tearful scenes as Queensland’s borders finally opened to Victorians and Sydneysiders.
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Families are being reunited in tearful scenes at Queensland’s airports following the reopening of Queensland’s hard border barricade after several months.
After almost half a year of strict closures and heated exchanges between state leaders, Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk reopened the border today.
A reunion that will only last a day has been worth the nine-month wait for Melbourne grandmother Linda O’Rourke, who is only in Brisbane for the day because she couldn’t wait until Christmas to see her son Ben’s family, including granddaughters Sadie, 14 months and Aubrey, 4.
“Words can’t describe how I’m feeling” Ms O’Rourke said after dropping to the ground and embracing Aubrey.
Linda will find herself back on a flight back to Melbourne tonight so she can continue her work with being a dog carer for Vision Australia.
“I couldn’t help myself, I had to come up today and see everyone, but I’ll definitely be back in Christmas.”
The entire Daniels family took today off just to be able to make the most of Linda’s short time, even surprising her at the arrival gate instead of a normal pick-up.
“We’ve all taken the day off work today just so we can spend some time with her, it’s the least we can do after all this time,” daughter-in-law Lauren exclaimed.
Ms Palaszczuk said today’s border opening would reunite families, declaring the “final scene of Love Actually is being completed in our airports”.
She said traffic on the M1 was flowing freely as the border wall comes down, but called for ongoing patience from motorists.
“As we speak, the final scene of ‘Love Actually’ is being recreated in our airports complete with the soundtrack.
“Happy tears are flowing.”
For Cathy and Nick Dempsey, today marked the end of a six-month separation that left them completely speechless at first, with Nick being stuck interstate.
“It’s very good (to be home), to be away for six months … It’s just great to be home,” Mr Dempsey said.
“It’s been hard, but we’re just happy to have him home,” Ms Dempsey added.
“It’s going to be the best Christmas ever.”
Another tearful arrival was for grandmother Glenise Thompson who was seeing her daughter Genevieve and daughters Madeline, 1, and Annabelle Maloney, who she hasn’t seen since Christmas last year.
“We usually go to see them twice a year … but there’s been none of that this year,” Ms Thompson said
“We haven’t been the for nearly a year, this is such a special moment for us.”
Emotions didn’t die down as the morning went on, with a Jetstar flight touching down reunited more interstate families, including for Corey Cramp and son Romeo, 7, who haven’t seen Corey’s mum Karen since March.
“Mum normally comes up to see us once a month, but we haven’t seen her in nine months.” Mr Cramp said.
“She even had tickets booked the last time the border was open and unfortunately missed out – she wasn’t going to chance it this time.
“It’s definitely been hard for us for not seeing her that long”
Cars queued up at the border between NSW and Queensland on the Gold Coast as the closure was lifted at 1am, while travellers on the first flight into Brisbane from Melbourne will be greeted with a train of Christmas gifts at the baggage carousel.
Queensland has had some form of border control in place since March 26 when the coronavirus pandemic first took hold in Australia.
OVERNIGHT
Australia’s two major airlines Qantas and Virgin Australia have recorded a staggering increase in bookings and inquiries in the week since Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk revealed the border would open.
Virgin Australia has booked about 100,000 seats to Queensland destinations in the past week, with three quarters for travel in the lead up to and during Christmas.
The first flight from Melbourne will arrive in Brisbane just after 8am with travellers on the flight VA309 set to receive more than 200 pairs of bright red Havaianas thongs to welcome them back to the Sunshine State.
The first new arrivals were greeted with a short but noisy delay this morning, with aviation protection officers rallying outside Brisbane Airport to protest ISS’s move to sack more than 350 ISS Aviation Protection Officers, who were told they would be given redundancy notices this week.
About 9000 passengers are booked to travel on Tuesday with the first Qantas and Jetstar flights from Sydney and Melbourne to Queensland.
More than 1200 Qantas and Jetstar staff will also return to work in December as a result of the border reopening.
For Qantas Captain Alex Shaw and twin sister Heather Mather, a flight attendant, the resumption of flying is almost a dream come true.
The twins have done little flying since COVID-19 forced Qantas to ground 90 per cent of its aircraft fleet in the most significant aviation challenge in a generation.
Qantas and Jetstar will operate more than 420 return flights per week across 19 routes between Queensland and both New South Wales and Victoria – compared to just 40 when borders were closed.
Mr Shaw, a Captain for 17 years, said the past eight months had been unlike anything he has experienced.
“There’s no doubt that this is the most tumultuous period in my aviation career,” he said.
“We work in an industry where there are almost continual shocks, things go up and down. “We’ve had SARS, September 11 and the Gulf Wars but for the company none of those compare to this.”
His sister Ms Mather, a Brisbane-based cabin steward, said the sector had been devastated.
“I’ve been flying one month on, one month off – mostly up to Mackay and a couple of trips to Perth where you have to be in your hotel room because of quarantine,” she said.
“With the Queensland border opening, it feels like we’re slowly getting back to normal.”
Ms Palaszczuk also revealed there were no new COVID-19 cases overnight, which marks Queensland’s 77th day of no community transmission.
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