Airlines say passenger caps mean up to six month wait for stranded Australians

Airlines say the cap on incoming passenger numbers means it could take up to six months to bring stranded Aussies home.

Airline passengers wearing face masks wait to check in their bags at Heathrow Terminal 5. Picture: Getty Images

International airlines are demanding the federal government review its 30-passenger cap on incoming flights, pointing out it could take six months to return thousands of Australians stranded overseas.

The Board of Airline Representatives of Australia (BARA) which has Qatar, Emirates, Etihad, China Southern, China Eastern and Singapore Airlines among its members, has spoken out following accusations of price gouging by travellers who are being bumped from flights at short notice, according to how much they’ve paid.

BARA executive director Barry Abrams said international flights cost between $8000 and $10,000 an hour to operate in fuel and crew costs alone.

“When you can only fill a sixth of the seats, the cost equation (for airlines) becomes terrible,” Mr Abrams said.

“The issue here is not availability of seats. There’s no shortage of seats. It comes down to the caps. It creates months of backlog.”

He said one airline told BARA it had to deny more than 100 passengers from boarding at the airport, following the implementation of caps in early July.

The caps were imposed to try to help states manage the number of overseas arrivals requiring two-weeks of guarded hotel quarantine.

The National Cabinet reaffirmed the caps at its meeting last Friday, restricting Sydney Airport to 350 arrivals a day, Brisbane and Adelaide to 500 a week and Perth to 525 a week. Melbourne Airport remains off-limits to overseas arrivals.

Mr Abrams said current restrictions meant fewer than 4000 Australians a week were able to fly home.

“International airlines have told BARA they’re continuing to receive many hundreds of requests for priority travel back to Australia on compassionate grounds,” he said.

“International airlines are effectively ‘triaging’ the many cases put to them in the context of an already long passenger waiting list.”

The obvious solution was an increase in the international arrival caps to allow Australians overseas to return home in a “more orderly manner than at present” by permitting more passengers on existing flights.

“Given the existing backlog of passengers, greater flexibility within caps would also mean international airlines are better placed to support hardship cases, as there are plenty of spare seats on every flight,” said Mr Abrams.

Qatar Airways had made the decision not to accept any new bookings for flights to Australia until the passenger caps were relaxed.

CEO Akbar Al Baker said ensuring the continued repatriation of passengers to Australia was becoming “increasingly challenging”.

“While we continue to work closely with the Australian authorities to protect public health, unfortunately many disappointed passengers are unable to travel as per their travel plans,” Mr Al Baker said.

“Given the restrictions, we cannot accommodate these passengers on an alternative flight the following day where we face the exact same issue so the problem continues to grow daily.”

The latest available federal government data showed Qatar Airways carried more passengers into Australia than any other carrier in June, with 7430 arriving on 100 flights.

Air New Zealand had the second highest number of inbound passengers, with 4806 on 91 flights, while Emirates flew 1634 people to Australia on 115 services.

Qantas and Virgin Australia have both suspended all international flights, other than those organised by the government.