Coronavirus: Airline lobby chief slams ‘repressive’ border restrictions

International Air Transport Association chief slams Australia’s Covid restrictions and warns acceptance may soon turn to anger.

International travellers remain few and far between in Australia due to ongoing border closures. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Dylan Coker

The head of the International Air Transport Association has slammed “repressive restrictions” on Australians in the pandemic and warned acceptance could soon turn to anger the longer ­borders remained closed.

In an interview with The Australian, IATA chief executive Willie Walsh, a former British Airways chief, said 500 days into the crisis enough data and knowledge had been gathered to avoid harsh measures such as lockdowns and ­border closures.

Mr Walsh said the crisis was no longer a pandemic but a “crisis of government restrictions” and questioned why Australians were tolerating extended travel bans.

“The idea Australians aren’t travelling around the world I find bizarre. It’s something I’ve always associated with Australians – they take time out and travel around the world and enjoy themselves and experience the culture of other countries,” he said.

“I find it incredible that people are satisfied or tolerating the situation where they’re locked in and not allowed to travel.”

In its role as the industry body for more than 200 airlines worldwide, IATA is lobbying governments to safely reopen borders so international travel can resume.

Mr Walsh said he was optimistic about the second half of 2021, as the vaccination rollout gathered speed and more countries opened up to one another.

“The research we’ve done at IATA is that people remain tolerant (of Covid restrictions) but they’re beginning to get impatient, they’re beginning to sort of say ‘it’s unfair to prevent me from seeing my family’,” he said.

In Australia’s case, he warned frustration was building over the “very restrictive regime that not only locked Australians in, but also locked Australians out”.

Treasury forecasts suggesting borders would remain closed until mid-2022 seemed “really excessive”, Mr Walsh said.

“I think that is repressive, given the vaccination rollout and the other mitigating actions you could put in place,” he said.

“I believe we are at a pivotal moment and the signs to me are positive for change, but Australia does seem to be taking a very, very risk-averse approach to me and that does surprise me.”

Mr Walsh predicted that when international travel did resume on a broad scale, airfares could be higher than pre-Covid due to the imbalance between supply and demand. Any time new routes had opened up, the response was “incredible” – and for that reason he expected airlines to struggle to add back capacity fast enough to satisfy demand.

There may also be fewer routes to choose from, and a bigger appetite for premium cabins.

“An interesting side effect of this pandemic is consumers have built up a lot of savings that otherwise they wouldn’t have and we do think consumer behaviour will be slightly different in that they will want to spend money, and they may well decide they want to spend more money to experience the premium product,” he said.

That would be good news for airlines and help make up for a loss of business travellers due to videoconferencing technology.