Predictions of when international flights may resume/bans lifted

[Seat0B]

C'mon Australia: We can't live in this Covid purgatory any longer. — Mamamia. I hope this is not paywalled. C'mon Australia: We can't live in this Covid purgatory any longer. By Daniel Bookman best article I’ve seen so far and I wish all pollies would read this.

Thanks for posting @Tiki. This is a great read. I wish all pollies would read it too. Here are some of my favourite quotes from Daniel Bookman’s excellent piece.

”Australia's approach to COVID implicitly includes the following: a comfort with severely curtailing its citizens’ liberties; the capacity to absorb and pay for economic calamities; a belief that its brand is strong enough to recover from the damage inflicted and to once again attract talent and capital; zero tolerance for risk or its citizens ability to manage it; and conviction that trust in authority will remain despite all the failures, hostility and dishonesty.”

”By all means, maintain strict border controls, but stop perpetuating a false binary where you have to choose between submitting to imprisonment in your homes, or bodies in the street. I don’t want to labor the point, but does the chart below really justify a form of martial law for half the country? Risk is a concept to be minimised, not something capable of being removed.”

“Here are some very simple and sensible things the government should do: transition the messaging about COVID away from fear and towards practical realities, because we will live with it as an endemic disease for many years to come; move on from a tyrannical obsession with zero cases; widen vaccine eligibility; loosen restrictions for those who are vaccinated, and acknowledge that returning travelers who are vaccinated do not need to spend 14 days locked in a hotel. We must move to a place where individuals have greater autonomy over managing their own risk.”

“It's clear the government bungled the vaccine’s procurement, messaging and roll-out, and that they somehow still haven't figured out how to fix a broken quarantine system. But instead of openly acknowledging their mistakes, they have resorted to dishonesty to cover them up, and continue to insist there is "no alternative" to the current situation.Let’s be very clear: this is not true. Our politicians have perpetuated this lie for over a year, and they have been aided and abetted by a media that’s comically breathless in its desire to drum up panic and hysteria; to overseas readers, Australian newspapers’ coverage of COVID verges on satire.”

 

[Tiki]

I'm getting more pessimistic by the day, when ironically the vaccine rate in Aus is getting better by the day.

Till now, there is no inclination whatsoever that quarantine requirements will be dropped, even if we vaccinate 90 or 95% of the population. I assume some more bubbles will be formed with pacific nations next year, but apart from that, it seems like 14-day quarantine is here to stay for years (possibly at home for arrivals from less risky countries).

Yeah I am worried about Anna honouring the 80% freedom thing. I don't trust her at all as long as she thinks she can rule a "republic of fear" and push Covid 0. And I am sick to death of the media promoting the fear angle.

 

[justinbrett]

Wonder what DRW can handle from a passenger perspective? Presumably they’d be thrilled to have the business.

Plenty. They have had QF international widebody before - ADL-DRW-SIN at one point and also SYD-DRW-BOM. The domestic section of the terminal is large enough to have domestic flights to most of the big cities at the same time. The schedule generally works in waves where there is a lunch time rush and another just after midnight.

They could easily have MEL/BNE/ADL to DRW on domestic 737/A330 and SYD connecting to LHR on 787 all synchronised.

 

[lovetravellingoz]

Qantas starting to make more detailed international route plans and preparations.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Thanks for posting @Tiki. This is a great read. I wish all pollies would read it too. Here are some of my favourite quotes from Daniel Bookman’s excellent piece.

Try a 'control find' for the word 'clear' in the article... around 16 times. 'It's clear', 'let me be clear', 'let's be very clear'. I suspect anyone having to say 'it's clear' ten times in an article is trying to make a point that's... ummm... not clear?

Perhaps telling is the admission that 'we are clearly here [in the USA] furthering our own interests'. Such a great wonderful country is Australia that they chose to leave for somewhere better.

The author is cheesed off that they can't have their cake and eat it too. Live, work and play in the USA but come home to Australia whenever they feel like it. Which is fair enough, but we just happen to be in the middle of a pandemic. And no discussion why they ignored warnings to come home to Australia when they had the opportunity and means to do so at the start of the pandemic.

They admit Australia did a great job in 2020. I'd argue Australia did a reasonably good job until just a couple of months ago when Delta came. Before that we were living a pretty good life here, free from just about all restrictions except travel into or out of Australia. Two months!

 

[justinbrett]

Qantas starting to make more detailed international route plans and preparations.


View attachment 256468

If Joyce ran for PM, I'd vote for him on that platform.

I can only hope it happens.

 

[justinbrett]

Before that we were living a pretty good life here, free from just about all restrictions except travel into or out of Australia. Two months!

Maybe for you, but the inability to travel domestically between states and internationally has been heartbreaking and soul destroying for many.

 

[mviy]

The only thing I don’t like about QF’s plan is no A380 love for MEL from QF, but SYD A380 flights is a lot better than the none expected for a few years.

Well I’d prefer the flights to start in November too, but mid-December would still be fantastic.

 

[justinbrett]

The only thing I don’t like about QF’s plan is no A380 love for MEL from QF, but SYD A380 flights is a lot better than the none expected for a few years.

Well I’d prefer the flights to start in November too, but mid-December would still be fantastic.

Oh please, I'd fly to LHR on a Dash 8 if it meant I could go.

 

[mviy]

Yes, I’d fly on anything at this point to get there too. I’d even fly other airlines if QF wasn’t flying there.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

No mention of potential markets such as the 'sandbox' in coughet. Maybe something JQ will look at?

 

[Seat0B]

Try a 'control find' for the word 'clear' in the article... around 16 times. 'It's clear', 'let me be clear', 'let's be very clear'. I suspect anyone having to say 'it's clear' ten times in an article is trying to make a point that's... ummm... not clear?

Perhaps telling is the admission that 'we are clearly here [in the USA] furthering our own interests'. Such a great wonderful country is Australia that they chose to leave for somewhere better.

The author is cheesed off that they can't have their cake and eat it too. Live, work and play in the USA but come home to Australia whenever they feel like it. Which is fair enough, but we just happen to be in the middle of a pandemic. And no discussion why they ignored warnings to come home to Australia when they had the opportunity and means to do so at the start of the pandemic.

They admit Australia did a great job in 2020. I'd argue Australia did a reasonably good job until just a couple of months ago when Delta came. Before that we were living a pretty good life here, free from just about all restrictions except travel into or out of Australia. Two months!

So rather than playing the man and judging the author’s career, life and editorial choices, I am wondering which parts of the article you specifically disagree with? For example:

Do you think the vaccination program was well handled? Or that is was not well handled but the Government has been open, honest, constructive and transparent about that?
Do you think that it is a binary choice between lots and lots of short and long lockdowns or bodies piling up in the streets in 2021?
Do you support COVID-0 approach? If so, how will our society have to change to cope with that?
Do you think that fully vaccinated Australians who arrive from overseas and may or more likely may not have COVID should be required to do 14 days HQ when there are tens of thousands of onshore Australians who are permitted to do home quarantine, despite the fact that some of those people break the rules?
If you were a business or an international student or even a tourist, would you consider Australia or would you prefer another location? Why?
Do you think fully vaccinated people should have privileges?
Do you support the exit ban on Australian citizens?

 

[justinbrett]

No mention of potential markets such as the 'sandbox' in coughet. Maybe something JQ will look at?

Google Thailand Covid and that should answer your question why it wasn't mentioned.

 

[Seat0B]

Oh please, I'd fly to LHR on a Dash 8 if it meant I could go.

I think that might just be a bridge too far!

 

[MelMel]

No mention of potential markets such as the 'sandbox' in coughet. Maybe something JQ will look at?

Just another reason for WA not to care about vaccine rates, no flights to Bali until April 2022

 

[MEL_Traveller]

So rather than playing the man and judging the author’s career, life and editorial choices, I am wondering which parts of the article you specifically disagree with? For example:

Do you think the vaccination program was well handled? Or that is was not well handled but the Government has been open, honest, constructive and transparent about that?
Do you think that it is a binary choice between lots and lots of short and long lockdowns or bodies piling up in the streets in 2021?
Do you support COVID-0 approach? If so, how will our society have to change to cope with that?
Do you think that fully vaccinated Australians who arrive from overseas and may or more likely may not have COVID should be required to do 14 days HQ when there are tens of thousands of onshore Australians who are permitted to do home quarantine, despite the fact that some of those people break the rules?
If you were a business or an international student or even a tourist, would you consider Australia or would you prefer another location? Why?
Do you think fully vaccinated people should have privileges?
Do you support the exit ban on Australian citizens?

The major failing the vaccination program was that we backed AstraZenica. The side effects of that - albeit small - were enough to derail that program. Should we have ordered an extra 50 million Pfizer? In hindsight, yes. The messaging was also poor (this is not a race).

Different people want different things out of the handling of this pandemic. I want my elderly parents to be safe and have a reasonable standard of living. That means not being locked away or sheilded. Before Delta, and while waiting for the vaccine to be rolled out, covid-0 was fine to meet that requirement. Although I am opposed to the outward travel ban, the inconvenience was worth it, for me.

Australian businesses - whether universities or in tourism - are going to have to pivot. I think the Chinese market will be gone, although for reasons other than covid.

Google Thailand Covid and that should answer your question why it wasn't mentioned.

Thailand in general yes, but coughet - and some variant for Samui - were supposed to be operating their sandboxes with 80% of those islands vaccinated. (Edit I see from MelMel's post that coughet is there from April 2022.)

 

[Tiki]

The author is cheesed off that they can't have their cake and eat it too. Live, work and play in the USA but come home to Australia whenever they feel like it. Which is fair enough, but we just happen to be in the middle of a pandemic. And no discussion why they ignored warnings to come home to Australia when they had the opportunity and means to do so at the start of the pandemic.

Back in March 2020 no one in their worst nightmare could imagine this would be dragging on and on as long as it did. People probably thought it would be 2-3 months, things would be sorted, travel protocols established and travel would resume. I arrived in Australia from Turkey on 2 March, 3 weeks before the lockdown on my regularly scheduled flight. If someone had told me that in 3 weeks Aussies would be banned from returning home and/or locked up in hotels I would have said they were nuts! I still can't get my head around these draconian procedures, pandemic or not!

 

[lovetravellingoz]

If Joyce ran for PM, I'd vote for him on that platform.

I can only hope it happens.

Well I would be most hopeful that by mid Dec that fully vaxxed vaccination rates should be above 80% throughout Australia, and so if by then hopitilastions are also under control everywhere, there would be no reason for international flights to not start opening up to select destinations.

 

[Seat0B]

The major failing the vaccination program was that we backed AstraZenica. The side effects of that - albeit small - were enough to derail that program. Should we have ordered an extra 50 million Pfizer? In hindsight, yes. The messaging was also poor (this is not a race).

Different people want different things out of the handling of this pandemic. I want my elderly parents to be safe and have a reasonable standard of living. That means not being locked away or sheilded. Before Delta, and while waiting for the vaccine to be rolled out, covid-0 was fine to meet that requirement. Although I am opposed to the outward travel ban, the inconvenience was worth it, for me.

Australian businesses - whether universities or in tourism - are going to have to pivot. I think the Chinese market will be gone, although for reasons other than covid.



Thailand in general yes, but coughet - and some variant for Samui - were supposed to be operating their sandboxes with 80% of those islands vaccinated. (Edit I see from MelMel's post that coughet is there from April 2022.)

Thank you for replying.

 

[kamchatsky]

I can see it now, some people will complain of the lack of an international F lounge at DRW ..... Unfair for WP/P1/OWE members!