Shock reality of reduced international flight caps; new travel warning
More airlines could ditch routes Down Under as international arrival caps are slashed, as Australians are warned a third Covid jab may be required for overseas travel.
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More airlines are likely to cease operations down under as international arrival caps are slashed, with flights into Australia restricted to as few as five passengers and in some cases zero from next week.
The Board of Airline Representatives of Australia (BARA) has revealed the heavy restrictions to be imposed on airlines after the Queensland, Victorian and West Australian premiers pushed to half overseas arrivals to help ease pressure on quarantine hotels, The Australian reports.
Sydney’s capacity will be slashed to 215 arrivals a day. A third of those flights won’t be able to carry anyone, with the rest restricted to 25 or 26 passengers.
About one weekly flight per airline into Melbourne Airport will also be empty with the rest to carry just 11, 12 or 13 passengers.
Airlines operating into Perth will be limited to a mere 5-10 passengers a flight with the city accepting just 265 arrivals a week, while carriers flying into Brisbane have been told they can take just five or six passengers, or 10-12 if they operate less frequently.
BARA executive director Barry Abrams told The Australian airlines were “bleeding cash”.
Mr Abrams said low passengers numbers and the high cost of operating medium- and long-haul international flights meant many were “no longer commercially viable”.
In order to continue operating, the price of fares was likely to soar.
Meanwhile, University of New South Wales epidemiologist Professor Mary-Louise McLaws, who is also an adviser to the World Health Organisation, has warned a third coronavirus jab may be required before Australians can travel overseas again.
“With more research done and as we’re learning more about Covid-19 it would appear we need a third shot, preferably around eight months,” Professor McLaws told 7 News.
“It’s a bit like the flu, in that we have a new flu shot each year because of the way it might change, and there’s something called shift and drift.
“The way that the virus changes, and some years, it doesn’t work well to last years, it doesn’t work well to last year’s influenza shot, and the same thing may happen with this one.
VACCINE PASSPORTS: HOW AUSTRALIA WILL COMPARE TO REST OF WORLD
Vaccine passports are set to become the key to travel freedoms for fully vaccinated Australians. Covid passports or vaccine certificates show whether an individual has been vaccinated or recently tested negative to the virus.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison included vaccine passports for international travel in a “four phase plan” to Covid-normal announced on Friday last week.
“We will recognise and adopt the Commonwealth’s existing digital Medicare vaccination certificate that is automatically generated for every vaccination,” Mr Morrison said.
“That is something that is already there now. By the end of the month, it will be at another level which would see it being able to be incorporated in things like Apple Wallets and the like. We will put in place a digital vaccination authentication at borders.”
The introduction of a vaccine passport will bring Australia in line with other countries.
ASIA
Thailand has become the latest country in Asia to approve the adoption of vaccine passports.
China, South Korea and Japan are among others in Asia using digital health certificates for international travel.
Thais who have completed their vaccinations will receive documents for overseas travel from Thailand’s Health Ministry.
It comes as the tropical country is lobbying to reopen holiday hot spots Phuket and Koh Samui amid a new wave of infection.
EUROPE
An EU-wide Covid certificate for easier travel came into force on Thursday (July 1), just in time for Europe’s busy summer vacation period.
The EU document – sporting a QR code and available in digital form on smartphones or hard copy – shows whether the bearer is vaccinated with one of the EU’s approved jabs, has recovered from an infection, or has a recent negative Covid test.
Under an EU law adopted this month, the certificate does away with the need for quarantines or further testing when travelling between the EU’s 27 countries or four associated European nations (Iceland, Norway, Switzerland and Liechtenstein).
Twenty EU countries have already started issuing and accepting it, with the others expected to follow suit shortly.
But a surge in the Delta variant, now rampant in former EU member Britain, could trigger an “emergency brake” provision suspending its acceptance.
With Delta becoming dominant in Portugal, Germany has announced a ban on incoming travellers from there except for its own citizens or residents.
Even they are required to quarantine for two weeks, regardless of vaccination or test status.
Portugal and Spain on Monday abruptly announced entry restrictions for travellers from Britain, with Lisbon requiring them to be fully vaccinated and Madrid demanding proof of vaccination or a negative Covid test.
UK
The UK wants to introduce quarantine-free travel for people that are fully vaccinated.
But there are a few hurdles that must be passed first before the plan can go ahead.
No decision has been made on whether the verification of Covid certification will take place before passengers travel, at border control, or via spot checks by officials, according to The Times.
Vision Box, the company that operates all of the UK’s e-passport gates, said that it had the technology ready to scan vaccination certificates from both the UK and the EU.
Under a mutual recognition arrangement, all EU countries would recognise the NHS app as a vaccine certificate, while the UK would recognise the EU’s digital green card.
At present the UK government is having to co-ordinate with individual countries that have chosen to accept the NHS app as a vaccine certificate.
US
US President Joe Biden has declared there won’t be a national app, leaving it up to the states to decide how they control their borders.
California, Louisiana, New York and Hawaii have active apps.
But 19 states have banned the system including Texas, Florida and Montana.
New York was the first to introduce the passport, an Excelsior Pass, and it immediately generated political debate among conservatives who argue the passports violate privacy concerns.
“The residents of our state should not be required by the government to share their private medical information,” said Arizona’s Republican Gov. Doug Ducey in April. “Vaccination is up to each individual, not the government.”
Public health experts were quick to note that Americans are already required to provide proof of vaccination in certain circumstances, such as to attend school and for international travel.
MIDDLE EAST
In Lebanon, vaccine passports are not yet mandatory but arriving travellers must test negative to Covid-19 no more than 96 hours prior to arrival.
Israel abolished its vaccine passport — the first in the world — in May, three months after it was introduced.
The controversial “green pass” took the form of a QR code downloaded from the health ministry or stored in a phone app.
According to media reports, enforcement of the green pass in cafes, bars, restaurants and gyms was largely ignored, particularly among younger Israelis, and the vaccine passport became redundant as coronavirus cases plummeted.
In the United Arab Emirates, the boss of Dubai Airports has said Covid passports are the only way to restart mass foreign travel.
Dubai Airports chief executive Paul Griffiths told the BBC: “I don’t think there is an alternative.”
Mr Griffiths said he was a complete supporter of the documents, which he says are “inevitable”.
Originally published as Shock reality of reduced international flight caps; new travel warning
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