Coronavirus Australia: Airlines steer clear of Melbourne at Federal government’s request

Foreign airlines will stop bringing passengers into Melbourne after an Australian government directive.

Air New Zealand will stop bringing passengers into Melbourne for the next two Picture: Mike Siegel/AP

Overseas airlines that have continued to operate into Australia throughout the COVID crisis have now suspended passenger flights to Melbourne at the direction of the federal government.

Air New Zealand, Emirates, Etihad, Singapore Airlines, China Southern and Qatar have announced the suspension of services to Melbourne until July 15 as the city struggles to get on top of a new coronavirus outbreak.

Some flights will continue to operate as cargo only services into Melbourne, then carry passengers out of Australia if demand exists.

The federal government issued the directive to other countries late last night, after a plea by Victoria’s Premier Daniel Andrews for international flights to Melbourne to be diverted elsewhere.

According to the directive, passenger flights from overseas were banned from arriving into Melbourne between 12.01am Thursday July 2 and 11.59pm Tuesday July 14.

A statement from Air New Zealand said it would comply with the directive that no international passengers would be eligible to arrive into Melbourne for the next fortnight in an effort to reduce the spread of coronavirus in the local community.

Air New Zealand was due to operate two return services to Melbourne on Wednesday, one of which was a cargo only flight, that would bring passengers back to Auckland on the return leg.

The other scheduled passenger flight in and out of Melbourne had been cancelled, the statement said.

Despite suspending any passenger flights into Melbourne until July 14, services from Melbourne to Auckland would continue to operate “in response to demand”.

An Emirates spokesman said the safety of passengers and crew was their highest priority and they were working with relevant authorities to minimise disruption.

“In the meantime, we continue to operate our flights for passengers to Sydney, Brisbane and Perth,” he said.

Singapore Airlines’ spokesman Karl Schubert apologised to those affected by the changes and said they would work with those customers to make alternate travel arrangements.

A Qatar Airways spokeswoman also confirmed inbound passenger flights into Melbourne would be paused until July 15 “as per government advice”.

It is yet another blow to Melbourne Airport which has already seen passenger numbers through its terminals fall from 100,000-a-day to 2000-a-day throughout the COVID crisis.

An Australian Border Force spokesman said they were working with all commonwealth and state agencies to “manage the impact of the decision” to ban people from overseas arriving in Melbourne.

“The ABF continues to work with state and territory authorities on their capacity to receive repatriation flights based on the available health resources and quarantine arrangements,” said the spokesman.

He said the ABF and Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade would continue to provide assistance to Australian citizens, permanent residents to return home.

“Quarantine arrangements are a matter for state and territory authorities,” he added.