Qantas maintains vaccination rule despite government change

International visitors will soon not have to show proof of Covid-19 vaccination to enter the country – unless they are coming in on a Qantas flight.

Qantas will continue to demand passengers be vaccinated before travelling on an international flight with the airline. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Andrew Henshaw

QANTAS will continue to demand passengers boarding international flights be fully vaccinated against Covid-19 despite the federal government’s move to relax the vaccination requirement for entry to Australia.

From 12.01am on Wednesday July 6, people will be able to fly in and out of the country without having to declare their Covid-19 vaccination status. The requirement to upload and fill out a digital passenger declaration will also be eased, in a significant step towards pre-Covid travel settings.

Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil said in time the digital passenger declaration would replace the paper passenger card but it needed “a lot more work to make it user friendly”.

Only the mask mandate on flights within and to Australia remains, after the requirement to wear masks at airports was dropped last month.

Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce recently called for mask wearing to be eased, and announced the airline would no longer require masks on flights to countries like the US, Europe and the UK.

But a Qantas spokeswoman on Monday indicated they had no immediate plans to relax the vaccination requirement for passengers on international flights.

Qantas says it has no plans to relax its vaccination requirements. Picture: NCA NewsWire /Brendan Beckett

The airline imposed a vaccination mandate on employees last year, and is currently facing a court challenge from several staff, some of whom were terminated for refusing to be vaccinated.

Virgin Australia is also the subject of court action over its employee vaccination mandate and was reviewing the federal government announcement on international passenger requirements.

Brisbane Airport Corporation CEO Gert-Jan de Graaff said the changes would “remove another hurdle for international travellers” while speeding up processing times for arriving passengers.

International airlines welcomed the changes and said they would have a “positive impact on the demand for travel to Australia”.

A United Airlines’ spokesman said given the pent up demand, the relaxation of requirements to enter Australia would further boost business and leisure travel.

An Etihad spokesman said it would make for a smoother and more convenient travel process for passengers without the additional hurdles of filling in the digital passenger declaration.

Cathay Pacific welcomed “all positive adjustments to travel restrictions” noting proof of vaccination was only required to board their flights when it was a condition of entry to the destination country.

Originally published as Qantas maintains vaccination rule despite government change