Australian Deputy Prime Minister, Michael McCormack has taken a shot at Qantas over the airline’s decision to resume selling tickets on international flights this week.
The airline made a move to reconnect international network by July 1, which has been grounded since late March 2020 as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.
New Zealand has remained the only overseas destination listed on Qantas’ timetable through to March 29, with the hope of opening a trans-Tasman travel bubble between Australia and New Zealand.
However, Qantas this week reopened bookings to Asia, the USA and London “to reflect our expectation that international travel will begin to restart from July 2021.”
McCormack, who is also Minister for Transport, responded today that “decisions about when international travel resumes will be made by the Australian Government.”
“International borders will be opened when international arrivals do not pose a risk to Australians.”
McCormack added that “the Australian Government is working on travel arrangements with countries, such as New Zealand, that have low community infections.”
McCormack’s colleague and Health Minister Greg Hunt says Australia “is on track and ahead of schedule” in its vaccine approvals process and he now expects all Australians will be “fully vaccinated” against COVID-19 by October 2021, an advance from the previous target of the end of 2021.
The federal government has a purchasing agreement for 10 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine and 54 million doses of the Oxford- AstraZeneca vaccine, with 50 million of those to be manufactured in Melbourne.
Each vaccine will requite two doses per person – one starter and one booster, administered 2-4 weeks apart – and pending approval by the Therapeutic Goods Administration, are expected to be available from March.
Source: executivetraveller.com