Qantas Airways Ltd., which is the flag carrier and largest airline in Australia by size has now began to accept bookings for different international flights available for passengers by July 1 where they are somehow visualizing a more vaccine-inflicted travel for people all around the world by that time.
The airline announced the news earlier today, in which they took it to consideration that international travel may somehow be normalized and will "begin to restart from July 2021." News and media outlet website Bloomberg listed some of the countries in which the Australian flagship airline would offer services and travels for the country's citizens and the airline's customers.
Countries Back on Travel
The countries include the likes of Asian countries such as Hong Kong, Japan, and Singapore which will then see availability for travel in the month of July. Travelers to other destinations like London and the United States, however, would most likely have to wait a little bit longer compared to July as the airline pushed their travel bookings for the month of October this year as well.
As of today, the only overseas country and destination in which Qantas is currently flying to is New Zealand, with the country being one of the earliest to lessen and almost report zero community transmission of the disease.
Words from the country's Deputy Prime Minister and Transport Minister Michael McCormack as reported by The Sydney Morning Herald list that the international border of Australia will only see a re-opening once the COVID-19 virus would be no longer considered as a public health risk, causing a global pandemic which were dated way back December 2019 with its first case in the Wuhan province of china.
A travel restriction implemented by the Australian government has been widely observed, banning its citizens from leaving the said country not unless they are granted with an exemption to travel due to immediate and much-important reasons provided, such as travels involving business reasons or on what could be labeled as compassionate basis. The deputy Prime Minister also mentioned that even if the resurgence of ticket sales is classified as a "commercial decision for airlines", the borders surrounding the country of Australia will still remain closed in an estimated target of the middle part of this year.
Other Airlines Operating
Instead of having a stop over in Los Angeles or San Francisco, Air New Zealand will overnight in Honolulu with lower risk of COVID-19. According to RNZ, this change will start on Jan. 11 for flights between United States and New Zealand. Meanwhile, those from North America will start re-routing on Feb. 2.
On the other hand, Airline Geeks report that Cathay Pacific has been operating with a free COVID-19 insurance for their passengers for trips between Dec. 7 and Feb. 28. This is one way to encourage people to travel and reduce their fears depsite the pandemic.
Vaccine Is The Only Way
The decision by the government to still impose their travel ban may root to the fact that the country has yet to secure or guarantee COVID-19 vaccines. Their attempt to create and produce their own developed and manufactured vaccine was canceled and put to an end after trails for it presented that it could then be inclined in various unexpected HIV diagnoses.
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Qantas, Alan Joyce, stated in an interview that the vaccine for the COVID-19 is the most necessary thing for overseas travels which would not require quarantine from back and forth of their citizens' destinations. This has been strengthened thoroughly as the US and UK which are both primary destinations of some of the travelers from Australia are currently reporting at least 50,000 COVID-19 cases per day, especially with the new strain of the virus being reported to have gradually started to spread.
