Qantas boss Alan Joyce says time to fully reopen, ditch Covid tests

Alan Joyce says it is time for Australia to reopen its borders and ditch Covid tests, singling out WA’s Premier for special criticism.

Qantas Group CEO Alan Joyce meets pilots at the official opening of the new airline’s flight training centre in Brisbane. Picture: John Gass/NCA NewsWire

Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce has called for Australia to reopen to international tourists as soon as possible, saying the current border policy makes no sense.

Speaking at the opening of the airline’s new flight training centre in Brisbane, Mr Joyce said he hoped borders would fully reopen well before Easter, as suggested by the Prime Minister last week.

“While we’re allowing Australians to come in and out it doesn’t make sense to me to not allow tourists,” said Mr Joyce.

“It’s the same risk, so hopefully we will get there well before April and we can ease back on the testing requirements that are also there. We can see there’s a lot more cases that are happening here than a lot of destinations we fly to.”

He warned that regions reliant on international visitors, like Cairns, would continue to be disadvantaged as long as borders remained partially closed.

“Other countries are opening up. The UK has taken all restrictions off for all countries (and) you don’t have to test any longer,” said Mr Joyce.

“So if you’re a Japanese traveller and taking a trip in July-August you have certainty in the UK. You don’t have certainty in Australia and that’s very important for tourist destinations in Queensland.”

WA Premier Mark McGowan. Picture: Matt Jelonek

Western Australia also came in for a dig from Mr Joyce over what he described as Premier Mark McGowan’s broken promise to open up on February 5.

He said 20,000 people had been booked to fly to WA in the first week after reopening, all of whom were now disappointed.

But he was optimistic travel demand was again returning in the wake of the widespread Omicron outbreak.

“I’ve never seen the airports as busy as this in the last two years,” said Mr Joyce who flew into Brisbane from Melbourne on Monday morning.

“We do have aircraft and people ready to take full advantage of what we believe will be a demand boom once people are comfortable with travelling again and we are over this wave of Omicron.”

While pilots welcomed the opening of the new training centre featuring four aircraft simulators relocated from Sydney, Mr Joyce acknowledged the ongoing tension with international cabin crew.

Qantas is seeking to terminate their current enterprise agreement in the Fair Work Commission in an effort to move flight attendants to a more flexible rostering system.

Mr Joyce said the changes were critical to the success of Qantas international operations which was attempting to restart after a devastating two years.

“Qantas used to be a big business. It’s a small business at the moment because we’ve lost $20bn of revenue because of Covid – more than any other company in the country,” he said.

“We need flexibility to get back out of this … so that when the market opens up and the Prime Minister changes the rules, we can put the schedule in place and take that opportunity. That’s what we’re asking for.”

He was joined at the opening of the training centre with Queensland Treasurer Cameron Dick who provided financial support for the facility.

Mr Dick would not say how much money was paid to Qantas to establish the centre which would allow 500 Queensland-based pilots to remain up-to-date with their training.

“It was a small contribution we made as a state to secure this facility and the ongoing jobs and training it will provide,” said Mr Dick.