Predictions of when international flights may resume/bans lifted

[Seat0B]

Only Qatar and SQ fly into Adelaide.

Same to CBR - except yesterday SQ announced that it is pulling out of Canberra for good, not just for the COVID era. So that means no direct departures from CBR as Qatar flies via Sydney.

 

[antycbr]

Likely not as then SA wont be required to take many at all.

And I don’t have a problem with that at all. SA have done an excellent job of their HQ program.

 

[hb13]

We see that the Federal Government has pushed to increase the caps today from 4,000 to 6,000 per week, what an absolute joke:

Australian Government pushes to increase international passenger caps

The Deputy Prime Minister is asking the states and territories to welcome home an extra 2,000 Australians each week.

www.executivetraveller.com

I wish someone would just tell the politicians that they may as well tell everyone in the travel and tourism industry their jobs are dead forever. Put them out of their misery now.

At this rate, there will be occasional small lifting of caps and you'll be lucky to see caps lifted completely by 2022. And since the Federal and State governments are sitting like clowns waiting for a vaccine to show up - not likely before Q3 in 2021 - which means a 2-week quarantine on arrivals for another 12 - 18 months from now.

Someone, anyone, please tell me what is the point of the tourism industry in Oz?

The politicians should be ashamed of themselves. This has gone too far. If you were to eradicate Covid-19 in Australia, let's say it is completely gone, what next??? Unless you keep the borders locked FOREVER, it will come back and start to build up again!

We need a strategy to live with the virus. I thought we had good doctors here - they should be telling the politicians at least that much. Eradication is no longer possible, in any country in the world. It is a nice fantasy, but it ain't happening in the next few years, and maybe ever.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

hb13 - I thought the caps were being lifted not for tourism, but to allow those who want to come home, to do so, with a lower chance of being 'bumped' and potentially lower fares for those who can't afford business class.

We will need to work out how to live with covid but we gotta give all the promising work underway a chance first! We'll know in a few month's time.

 

[hb13]

hb13 - I thought the caps were being lifted not for tourism, but to allow those who want to come home, to do so, with a lower chance of being 'bumped' and potentially lower fares for those who can't afford business class.

We will need to work out how to live with covid but we gotta give all the promising work underway a chance first! We'll know in a few month's time.

You're right it is for that, but what about everyone in Aus working in the tourism and travel industry?

I think in a few months' time, along with Job-Keeper ending, and reducing in some cases, we will see the very quick demise of many businesses. We have been saying let us wait a few months for a while now.

 

[dajop]

You're right it is for that, but what about everyone in Aus working in the tourism and travel industry?

I think in a few months' time, along with Job-Keeper ending, and reducing in some cases, we will see the very quick demise of many businesses. We have been saying let us wait a few months for a while now.

In the short term, forget overseas visitors, it's opening up the tourism industry to visitors from Sydney (and hopefully soon Melbourne as well), that will help. Remembering that many who normally take, or have taken holidays overseas will be looking to holiday at home this year. Can the industry adapt to the local market?

 

[hb13]

In the short term, forget overseas visitors, it's opening up the tourism industry to visitors from Sydney (and hopefully soon Melbourne as well), that will help. Remembering that many who normally take, or have taken holidays overseas will be looking to holiday at home this year. Can the industry adapt to the local market?

I hope you're right. Still can't believe state borders are closed to each other.

 

[jakeseven7]

You're right it is for that, but what about everyone in Aus working in the tourism and travel industry?

I think in a few months' time, along with Job-Keeper ending, and reducing in some cases, we will see the very quick demise of many businesses. We have been saying let us wait a few months for a while now.

But also that the vaccine is very likely not to be 100% effective anyway.... people keep on forgetting that.... especially politicians

 

[MEL_Traveller]

But also that the vaccine is very likely not to be 100% effective anyway.... people keep on forgetting that.... especially politicians

I don't think anyone is 'forgetting' that. A partially effective vaccine, together with treatments and cures, together with less virulent strains = being able to open up responsibly. There is simply no benefit to opening up now instead of three month's time when we have all of the above.

 

[HappyFlyerFamily]

I don't think anyone is 'forgetting' that. A partially effective vaccine, together with treatments and cures, together with less virulent strains = being able to open up responsibly. There is simply no benefit to opening up now instead of three month's time when we have all of the above.

Sorry, but you are dreaming that it’s three months away.

 

[hb13]

The estimate for Phase 3 trials finishing (for the major vaccines around the world Pfizer, AstraZenica etc) is 3 - 6 months now, so we definitely won't be seeing any sort of vaccine this year.

 

[hb13]

I think @jakeseven7 meant that the government seems to have all its hopes on a vaccine and almost expect it to be a silver bullet. And if we look at the government's actions at the moment - you can see why.

There is absolutely no plan or strategy apart from "let's wait for a vaccine".

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Sorry, but you are dreaming that it’s three months away.

We'll have an idea in three months or so whether the vaccine is likely to be an option. Then we can start planning.

 

[Princess Fiona]

The estimate for Phase 3 trials finishing (for the major vaccines around the world Pfizer, AstraZenica etc) is 3 - 6 months now, so we definitely won't be seeing any sort of vaccine this year.

Agreed there’s no way we are seeing a vaccine until well into next year.
My unqualified armchair pundit hope is that we can get Australia operating as a country again this year ie. No state borders.
Expand and modify the incoming Traveller quarantine. Maybe have a traffic light system: Red COVID high in origin must go into hotel quarantine, Orange COVID low and decreasing levels can choose to isolate in hotel quarantine or via a tracker if negative COVID test on arrival , Green COVID negligible or zero can isolate at place of their choice after health screening on arrival.
I think we should move to opening up travel to all Australians who want to leave as long as they understand the process for returning home.
There are many countries now which are perfectly safe for us to travel to NZ etc and to ban it outright to everywhere isn’t helpful to public health or the long term economy.

 

[p--and--t]

Agreed there’s no way we are seeing a vaccine until well into next year.
My unqualified armchair pundit hope is that we can get Australia operating as a country again this year ie. No state borders.
Expand and modify the incoming Traveller quarantine. Maybe have a traffic light system: Red COVID high in origin must go into hotel quarantine, Orange COVID low and decreasing levels can choose to isolate in hotel quarantine or via a tracker if negative COVID test on arrival , Green COVID negligible or zero can isolate at place of their choice after health screening on arrival.
I think we should move to opening up travel to all Australians who want to leave as long as they understand the process for returning home.
There are many countries now which are perfectly safe for us to travel to NZ etc and to ban it outright to everywhere isn’t helpful to public health or the long term economy.

Surely for international the key is a highly accurate, inexpensive, 5min test.

Mandatory test all arrivals at the airport. Into quaro for 72hours. Retest. Release if clear; else 14days self paid iso.

 

[HappyFlyerFamily]

Surely for international the key is a highly accurate, inexpensive, 5min test.

Mandatory test all arrivals at the airport. Into quaro for 72hours. Retest. Release if clear; else 14days self paid iso.

If you are talking about this 5 minutes test, there are a lot of false negatives. 33-50% missed positives!!!

FDA issues warning on accuracy of Abbott's rapid coronavirus test after study finds false negatives

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued an alert on Thursday saying there is early data that suggests Abbott Labs' rapid coronavirus diagnostic test for Covid-19 may be delivering inaccurate results.

www.cnbc.com

 

[p--and--t]

If you are talking about this 5 minutes test, there are a lot of false negatives. 33-50% missed positives!!!

FDA issues warning on accuracy of Abbott's rapid coronavirus test after study finds false negatives

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued an alert on Thursday saying there is early data that suggests Abbott Labs' rapid coronavirus diagnostic test for Covid-19 may be delivering inaccurate results.

www.cnbc.com

As I said a highly accurate inexpensive 5min test.

That one clearly doesn't meet the criteria.

 

[HappyFlyerFamily]

Agreed there’s no way we are seeing a vaccine until well into next year.
My unqualified armchair pundit hope is that we can get Australia operating as a country again this year ie. No state borders.
Expand and modify the incoming Traveller quarantine. Maybe have a traffic light system: Red COVID high in origin must go into hotel quarantine, Orange COVID low and decreasing levels can choose to isolate in hotel quarantine or via a tracker if negative COVID test on arrival , Green COVID negligible or zero can isolate at place of their choice after health screening on arrival.
I think we should move to opening up travel to all Australians who want to leave as long as they understand the process for returning home.
There are many countries now which are perfectly safe for us to travel to NZ etc and to ban it outright to everywhere isn’t helpful to public health or the long term economy.

I don’t mind the idea of traffic lights but there is not much incentive as everyone still has to do quarantine. So that 2 week holiday is still 4 weeks off/leave (unless you can work from quarantine).

Post automatically merged: Sep 16, 2020

As I said a highly accurate inexpensive 5min test.

That one clearly doesn't meet the criteria.

So we still need to wait for that on top of a 90% effective vaccine....good grief.

 

[p--and--t]

So we still need to wait for that on top of a 90% effective vaccine....good grief.

There are at least four different ways of tackling the problem some are better than others some are best implemented in combination, some short term, some long term. IMHO We should be pursuing every avenue in parallel.

Closed borders / hot&cold zones / Isolation
Stringent testing and separation
Prophylactic(s)
Vaccines

The practice of isolating the vulnerable from the rest of society is not sustainable. We need to find and separate the infected for life to return to semi normal for all crossections of society

 

[MEL_Traveller]

I don’t mind the idea of traffic lights but there is not much incentive as everyone still has to do quarantine. So that 2 week holiday is still 4 weeks off/leave (unless you can work from quarantine).

Quarantine on return probably does disadvantage our front-line workers the. Other can use quarantine as an extension of working from home.

But it's also unfair that our front-line workers have to be subjected to sky-high costs of holidaying in Australia Perhaps there should be a subsidy scheme available to them? (For example a 50% rebate on accommodation and food?)