Arrival cap increase a good start but not enough, say airlines

The airline industry has welcomed Scott Morrison’s announcement of an increase in arrival caps, but says he can’t stop there.

The government has announced an increase in the number of arrivals permitted at Australian airports. Picture: Sean Davey.

Airlines have welcomed the arrival cap increases announced by Prime Minister Scott Morrison but said an extra 1500 passengers a week would probably not be enough to clear the backlog of stranded Aussies by Christmas.

On Friday Mr Morrison announced that arrival caps would be lifted in NSW, Queensland and WA, meaning an additional 1,500 Australians a week will be able to return home.

Mr Morrison said that from September 27, NSW will take an additional 500 returned travellers each week, while Queensland and Western Australia will take an additional 200 per week. This number will rise again from October 4 when Queensland will move to 500 additional arrivals a week.

By October 11, Western Australia will also move to 500 additional arrivals a week.

“Now, New South Wales has been carrying the majority share and will continue to do that,” Mr Morrison said. “They will go to 3,000 a week from Monday week.”

Board of Airline Representatives of Australia executive director Barry Abrams said prior to the passenger caps being imposed in July, many airlines had flights to Australia booked out for six weeks.

“They then had to bump two-thirds of their passengers which was terrible for all involved, the passengers and the airline staff,” Mr Abrams said.

“This is obviously a good increase in capacity but if we stop or stall at this level that will create a lot of problems.”

He said allowing airlines to bring in 5500 passengers a week, up from 4000, would not be enough for airlines to commercially justify flights.

“This only takes us part of the way to where we need to be,” said Mr Abrams.

Mr Morrison also said Australia was again exploring a trans-Tasman travel bubble with New Zealand, an arrangement under which travellers could enter each other’s countries without quarantine.

“We’re working to ensure that New Zealanders can come to Australia, and Australians can return to Australia from New Zealand without the need to go through quarantine if they’re not coming from an area where there is an outbreak of COVID-19,” Mr Morrison said.

“For example, the whole of the South Island - that’s an area where there is no COVID and so if we can get to the situation soon where those coming home from New Zealand are able to enter Australia without going into a 14-day quarantine in a hotel, or in the worst-case scenario only having to do that in their home, then what that does is that frees up places in our hotel quarantine system.”

Mr Abrams said he was encouraged by renewed talks of a trans-Tasman bubble.

“That would certainly free up capacity for passengers from other countries that are higher risk,” he said.

It would now be up to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade to inform airlines how many passengers they would be permitted to fly per flight, he said.

Currently the numbers are as low as 50, and Mr Abrams said it seemed unlikely they would reach their minimum target of 100 a flight.

Qatar Airways also welcomed the increase in international arrivals permitted in Australia, and pledged to operate as many flights as needed to help more people come home.

“Since April, we have been the leading airline carrying international traffic to Australia,” said Qatar Airways CEO Akbar Al Baker.

“While other airlines grounded operations, we kept flying, carrying over 180,000 Australians and international travellers home. Despite this there are still over 20,000 Australians stranded overseas so we will continue to work with the Australian government and remain ready to operate as many flights as possible to bring them home.”