Predictions of when international flights may resume/bans lifted

[Pushka]

Yes, Mrs FB was unable to attend her mother's funeral last year due to lockdown in the UK and Ireland and no way to get there. Streaming it was just weird.

Love_the_life in Canberra could only stream her mothers funeral in Victoria. It’s just well. very sad.

 

[mviy]

Love_the_life in Canberra could only stream her mothers funeral in Victoria. It’s just well. very sad.

I had a friend who lives in Victoria and couldn't go interstate to two funerals, one for a parent and another for a sibling.

I haven't missed any funerals of family members myself, but wondered if I might.

When the state borders continue to be shut so easily we've got little hope of international border restrictions easing soon. Pursuing suppression there would be no reason for Perth or Peel to be in lockdown and only close contacts or those who test positive should have any restrictions on travelling. I grow more frustrated with the elimination strategy by the day as it's unrealistic to maintain elimination without herd immunity.

If we were pursuing suppression then travel to the UK should be back on for vaccinated travellers in say June/July, but because we're going for elimination, QF's intended start date of the end of October seems hopelessly optimistic.

The NZ system seems a lot fairer for their citizens. Anyone who wants to take the risk and determines for themselves that they can afford to can leave, but has to go into a queue to come back where you book your spot rather than get back in because of paying for expensive business/first class fares.

 

[Seat0B]

The thing that amuses me about the WA/melbourne guy is that he stayed in Perth for a few days after quarantine was over with a woman and they dined all over Perth.
Then flies home to Melbourne and is met by his wife.Maybe I just have a suspicious mind or maybe that is why he wanted to be taken to HQ in Melbourne.

I was intrigued too but then I thought - maybe it was his sister and her children, or perhaps his adult daughter and his grandchildren.

And then I thought - it’s really none of my business, and as @sjk said, it’s awful to have to account for your daily life in public, especially when the stuff up sits squarely with the government for mismanaging HQ in the first place.

 

[JohnM]

I was intrigued too but then I thought - maybe it was his sister and her children, or perhaps his adult daughter and his grandchildren.

And then I thought - it’s really none of my business, and as @sjk said, it’s awful to have to account for your daily life in public, especially when the stuff up sits squarely with the government for mismanaging HQ in the first place.

He didn't stay every night at the woman's place S of the river; he also spent some nights at St Catherine's College at UWA in self-contained accommodation, but did have breakfast in the communal dining room.

It was irrelevant whether he stayed with a woman; the authorities could simply have told the media he stayed with a person in Kardinya. Their sex/gender preference is inconsequential in relation to Covid-19 and the incident in general. Especially in this day and age...

The worrying aspect is that he travelled very widely across the Perth metropolitan area and went to a lot of Asian restaurants, which are often pretty busy places, including some in the entertainment precinct in Northbridge. I'm sure that's the aspect that's got the authorities (and many others) very nervous.

 

[Cappuccino99]

Love_the_life in Canberra could only stream her mothers funeral in Victoria. It’s just well. very sad.

And I had to watch my father's funeral in the UK online

 

[Pom-DownUnder]

Eu to open to fully vaccinated americans with them able to move between countries without issue / quarantine

Time to get ready to watch the rest of the world through a window as i said would be the case, the bloody shame of it. All because we have done "so very very wellllllll"

Americans can start dreaming of a summer holiday to Europe

 

[Must...Fly!]

Good. This will encourage vaccinations and turn the heat up big time on the nutjob premiers (all except Gladys) as we go forward.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Eu to open to fully vaccinated americans with them able to move between countries without issue / quarantine

Time to get ready to watch the rest of the world through a window as i said would be the case, the bloody shame of it. All because we have done "so very very wellllllll"

We should see that as a good thing. If the evidence suggests it is safe to open up to vaccinated people, it will become hard for the Aust government to justify that its rules under the Biosecurity Act, or its international obligations are being met.

 

[oznflfan]

Eu to open to fully vaccinated americans with them able to move between countries without issue / quarantine

Time to get ready to watch the rest of the world through a window as i said would be the case, the bloody shame of it. All because we have done "so very very wellllllll"

Americans can start dreaming of a summer holiday to Europe

There's a fair chance we will still be watching through our window in northern hemisphere summer 2022 as well, missing out on:

Full crowd baseball games in USA
Full stadiums at EPL matches
Full crowds at Colosseum in Rome, Venice, Paris & Greek Islands.

Eventually we will open, but well and truly after next Federal Election.

Bill Gates said last month we will absolutely be back to normal by end of 2022. We may be the last to acknowledge and act of this.

 

[DC3]

There's a fair chance we will still be watching through our window in northern hemisphere summer 2022 as well

Yes. Our Fed leader(s) say there’s no rush. Hard to imagine anything happening soon.

 

[Lynda2475]

But we are already back to 100% capacity for ticketed seated events such as theatre, sports well at least in the non paranoid states.

We will be rightly jealous of being able to freely travel to see friends, family or sights over seas (and sometimes interstate), but local events are pretty much back to normal.

 

[drron]

Though the EU is not opening to UK vaccinated residents and the UK is doing better than the US.Just the EU being the EU.

 

[HappyFlyerFamily]

...and we know the EU always makes the best decisions relating to covid.

 

[oznflfan]

But we are already back to 100% capacity for ticketed seated events such as theatre, sports well at least in the non paranoid states.

We will be rightly jealous of being able to freely travel to see friends, family or sights over seas (and sometimes interstate), but local events are pretty much back to normal.

My bucket list for 2023 that I cant currently leave Austraila for:

Le Mans
French F1 GP
Goodwood Festival of Speed
Wroclaw SpeedwayGP Round

I can attend Bathurst this year that Europe cant, me thinking glass half full.

 

[roogirl]

Though the EU is not opening to UK vaccinated residents and the UK is doing better than the US.Just the EU being the EU.

The EU will absolutely open to U.K. vaxxed tourists, it’s the U.K. who are the laggards. We will get an announcement prob 3 May from the U.K. government about which countries are green vs amber (no EU country will be red aka requiring g hotel quarantine). And then you’ll hear from EU. Some countries have already come out abd started marketing to brits, and most require vaccination OR. Negative PCR (not both). Otherwise no family tourism.

whether you would want to travel to those countries with an unvaxxed person is a different matter - we are currently pondering this with our young kids. But there will def be lots of U.K./EU tourism (insofar as one can be definite about anything these days!).

 

[dajop]

EU <-> UK, the distances involved are no further than SYD <-> DRW/PER ! People in Australia already have the luxury of jetting off for four hours for a holiday! I would just like to go somewhere - further than 25km away - without having to quarantine for 2 weeks.

Painful looking out the office window and seeing the "forbidden lands" you can't travel to just on the other side of the water, merely 40 mins by boat.

 

[roogirl]

Agreed!
We’re also due to go to the US this summer which I was skeptical about but looks as if it may happen with both of us fully vaccinated.

 

[Sydney BE]

I think people should be able to travel overseas for weddings of immediate family where they can't be held here, that restrictions on travel are far too restrictive. However, if a double standard is at play here that I have a problem with. Not a problem with the traveller, but with the decision making process as to who can and who can't travel.

Back when the government was saying that people had had plenty of time to come home to try to justify charging for hotel quarantine, my logical extension of that deeply flawed thinking was well then what's the problem with adding an extra person to the queue letting me depart the country for whatever I feel I need to do? If I take the place from people who the government believes have had plenty of time to come home but chose not to then how would that be unfair?


And things like the biological clock if you want to have children. Telling e.g. someone who is 38 to wait to get married with no date in sight to go ahead would be cruel. The government has essentially required people to choose between getting married with their immediate family present or having children.

I'm one of those people. I was meant to get married last year. Put my life on hold due to covid and went through a pretty bad depression last year realising that it will likely also mean I won't have children.

It didn't help that anytime I spoke to anyone about it they just said well I could have started a family earlier
Or
You should be happy you still have a job
Or
My favourite we are all in this together... No we are not we are all in the same storm but we all have different things we've had to give up

I know people have had harder times than me and I know I still might have a family if I'm lucky

 

[hb13]

The news regarding US-EU travel is great news, and I would expect the US to soon reciprocate.

While I think it is a bit weird that the EU hasn't opened up to the UK - it is to be expected because the UK has decided to be so draconian about the borders, ala Australia and I fear this will impact those of us in the UK who want to travel.

Regarding Australia, I don't see this news actually impacting AUS in the slightest unfortunately. I cannot believe that WA and QLD premiers are currently holding the Federal government hostage. WA has just halved their international intake again till the end of May - it is an absolute joke. I'm sure some here will be happy with that, as will most of the Australian population.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

The news regarding US-EU travel is great news, and I would expect the US to soon reciprocate.

While I think it is a bit weird that the EU hasn't opened up to the UK - it is to be expected because the UK has decided to be so draconian about the borders, ala Australia and I fear this will impact those of us in the UK who want to travel.

Regarding Australia, I don't see this news actually impacting AUS in the slightest unfortunately. I cannot believe that WA and QLD premiers are currently holding the Federal government hostage. WA has just halved their international intake again till the end of May - it is an absolute joke. I'm sure some here will be happy with that, as will most of the Australian population.

If the EU opening up to vaccinated people shows no increase in risk or the spread of covid, it could call into question the validity of declarations made under the Biosecurity act, which are only supposed to be those reasonably necessary.