The chief executives of Melbourne and Brisbane’s international airports doubt Qantas will be able to relaunch most of its overseas network on October 31 as planned, but are hopeful there will be more travel bubbles by the end of the year.
Qantas is selling tickets to 22 overseas destinations from October 31 based on the government’s original timeline for completing the vaccine rollout, with the airline’sBrisbane Airport chief executive Gert-Jan de Graaff said that while he wished Qantas’ plans become a reality - especially given international traffic made up half his pre-COVID revenue - he considered it unlikely.
“As soon as the borders are open we will see COVID come into the country whether we like it or not,” he said. “Hence, I think we will make sure a significant part of the adult population is vaccinated before we even consider opening up to other countries.” ”There will be some risk of transmission the more we open up to the world. But... as more of us are vaccinated, yes we’ll get the virus but it won’t be a bad dose of the virus,” he said.
Source: Holiday News (holidaynews.net)