Flights halted over arrival caps

Australians trying to get home from overseas face an even greater challenge in coming months, amid calls to ease quarantine rules.

Arriving international passenger are helped on to buses at Sydney airport by ADF, police and airport security. Picture: Jane Dempster

Australians trying to get home from overseas face an even greater challenge in coming months, with airlines starting to suspend services due to strict passenger caps.

Malaysia Airlines will pull flights out of Adelaide, Brisbane and Perth from October 25 to March 27, 2021, because they are not commercially viable.

Executive director of the Board of Airline Representatives of Australia, Barry Abrams, said others were likely to follow as the government restrictions continued.

“At Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth Airports the small weekly caps of between 500 and 525 passengers can be commercially unviable for international airlines, especially if this small number is intended to be spread out evenly across the week,” said Mr Abrams.

“So it’s to be expected these quotas aren’t being routinely filled such that some international airlines will suspend their small number of flights into these airports, further reducing the options available for Australians to return home.”

In the case of Sydney, the 350 passengers a day cap was fully subscribed by international airlines for weeks, leaving little room to accommodate hardship cases as they arose.

That had resulted in some carriers, including Qatar Airways, halting ticket sales for Australian flights until the current backlog was cleared.

Mr Abrams said the situation highlighted the need for a review of the mandatory 14-day quarantine rule imposed by the federal government in late March.

He said it made no sense that Australians returning home from countries like New Zealand were subject to quarantine, even when the country had no COVID-19 cases.

“Consistent with the position of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), it would be worthwhile to review the arrangements used to mitigate the risk of cases of COVID-19 from Australians returning home from different overseas countries,” Mr Abrams said.

“If risk mitigation options other than mandatory quarantine were acceptable for Australians returning from some countries, this would free up quarantine capacity for passengers returning from countries where COVID-19 risks are higher.”

Canberra Airport chief executive Stephen Byron also called for mandatory quarantine rules to be eased for Australians returning from New Zealand, if they had been there for more than 30 days.

“Realistically this is something that could be changed very quickly and it would help get Australians home, and free up 20 to 30 per cent of the current cap,” Mr Byron said.

“Borders should be opened to countries with very small numbers of cases.”

Mr Abrams feared if action was not taken soon, the few international airlines still operating to Australia on a regular basis carrying vital freight, would be forced to pull out.

“International airlines are operating about 160 flights a week into Australia now, including 26 into Melbourne with no inbound passengers,” he said.

“They need to be able to sustain at least 100 passengers per incoming flight, good freight loads and strong outward passenger volumes to support their commercial viability over the coming months.”

As airlines struggled to work within the government’s restrictions, more carriers were sending excess aircraft to Alice Springs for storage.

The number of aeroplanes stored at the site has grown from just a handful at the start of the year to 73, with that figure expected to soar above 100 in the next fortnight.

Asia Pacific Aircraft Storage managing director Tom Vincent said the site was expanding to meet demand with capacity growing to up to 200 planes by the end of the year.