Renewed push for Hobart-Canberra COVID-19 travel bubble

Mainlanders hoping to take advantage of a proposed travel bubble with Tasmania will have to fill out statutory declarations, stating they haven’t been in a COVID-19 hotspot, to get on a flight.

A NEW push for a travel bubble between Hobart and Canberra has been launched which would block NSW residents from using the nation’s capital as a back door into Tasmania.

Canberra Airport chief executive Stephen Byron has written to Premier Peter Gutwein urging him to consider the proposal after Tasmania’s border closure was extended until December.

“We believe that so long as NSW persons are prohibited from travel through Canberra Airport to Tasmania and only by way of a direct flight, which appears to be the concern of your Government and Health officials, then resumption of domestic travel between our two states/territories should be permitted as Canberra is not a COVID hot spot,” Mr Byron said.

“We have an airline ready to start direct flights to Hobart,” he said, adding that the new route was a “fantastic positive” to come out of the pandemic.

Travellers from Tasmania or the ACT would have to show their driver’s licence at Canberra Airport and to airline staff at the gate.

Parliament House, Canberra.

The airport boss said extra requirements could also be used such as statutory declarations which would require travellers to state that they had not been outside of the ACT for the last 14 days or visited Victoria or any identified covid hotspot in NSW for the last 30 days.

The ACT has not had a COVID-19 case for almost 40 days.

Mr Byron said the trial could start now or within the next four to eight weeks.

Mr Gutwein said the border restrictions announced on Tuesday “apply to all jurisdictions in Australia at this time”.

“At this stage we plan to open to safe jurisdictions on December 1 but if circumstances on the mainland improve more rapidly and the advice is that we can open sooner, we will, but Tasmanians should plan ahead based on the timeline to the end of November as I have outlined,” he said.