NSW aims for November 1 start date for resuming international travel

International travel to and from Sydney will resume within weeks if NSW can fast track widespread home quarantine for vaccinated travellers.

International travel to and from Sydney will resume within weeks if NSW can fast track widespread home quarantine for vaccinated travellers.

It is understood officials are working to a potential accelerated international border reopening date of November 1 this year if the current NSW home quarantine pilot is successful.

Sydney International Airport’s departures area could soon be filled with travellers once more. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Damian Shaw

Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Sunday flagged plans were well underway to restart overseas travel in and out of Sydney as soon as possible, confirming the Commonwealth would open the border as soon as the state was ready.

“The NSW Premier and I have been discussing how we can accelerate our plan to open international travel when home quarantine is made available,” he said in a video message.

“I know the NSW Government is looking at ways to fast track home quarantine in November and if that happens we will be able to move to facilitate the opening up of the international border into NSW sooner.

“That would mean home quarantine for vaccinated Australians wishing to return home via Sydney and giving the option for international travel for vaccinated Australians to leave and return.”

Tourism Minister Stuart Ayres says hotel quarantine will only be maintained for unvaccinated travellers in the future. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Adam Yip

Tourism Minister Stuart Ayres said the current cap on international returnees agreed to by the national cabinet during the Delta outbreak would either be “substantially lifted” or scrapped by the end of October or early November.

“We know hotel quarantine is fast becoming redundant, not sustainable into the future,” he said.

“I want the police commissioner out of the tourism business (and) that means we’ve got to phase out of hotel quarantine.”

The NSW government is due to shortly consider results from a current pilot of about 35 international returnees and 50 Qantas staff trialling home quarantine with a mobile app that uses facial recognition and location data to ensure compliance.

Should the pilot prove successful, hotel quarantine would only be maintained for unvaccinated travellers.

Premier Dominic Perrottet says he wants NSW to open to international travel as quickly as possible. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Flavio Brancaleone

Premier Dominic Perrottet said the state government wanted international borders to open as “quickly” and as “safely” as possible.

“We cannot live here … as a hermit kingdom on the other side of the world,” he said.

“We need to rejoin it.”

Mr Perrottet said if people were fully vaccinated it “makes sense” for them to return to Australia to quarantine in a “better” home setting than be cramped in a hotel for two weeks.

“We will look at . the outcomes of that (home quarantine) pilot and if we can expedite it,” he said.

“We want to bring Australians back and if that means that NSW can do that as well for people who live in other states, we want to help them.”

Australia’s international travel ground to a halt in March 2020 when Covid-19 spread all over the world. Picture: NCA NewsWire Christian Gilles

In his video shared to social media, Mr Morrison also praised the “phenomenal response” from Australians to get vaccinated, which meant people were able to “reclaim their lives”.

“Whether you’re in locked-down Melbourne, or on the verge of once again opening up in Sydney or living life near normal in Perth, we all have cause for celebration,” he said.

“We have now administered more than 30 million vaccines around the country.”

Prime Minister Scott Morrison is working with NSW to accelerate the resumption of international travel. Picture: Rohan Thomson/Getty Images

Mr Morrison said the reopening in NSW would be a “moment to cherish” for people right across the state.
“Reuniting with family and friends, having a beer with your mates at the pub (or) getting a haircut and going to the gym,” he said.

“All things that we once took for granted but that we now know are so important.”
Mr Morrison said high vaccination rates in NSW, where more than 73.5 per cent of people over 16 have had two doses, were having a “dramatic effect” on Covid-19 case numbers.

“The vaccines are doing the job,” he said.

“(The Covid pandemic has) been the battle of our generation.

“It’s been long. It’s been tough. There have been so many sacrifices. But we are well and truly getting there.”