Predictions of when international flights may resume/bans lifted

[Must...Fly!]

Melbourne airport just established a PCR 'on departure' facility: Melbourne Airport - Passenger Information | Melbourne Airport

But putting the practicalities of that aside, perhaps there should be a 15-minute rapid test at the airport, with any initial positives referred to the full PCR? Should in theory be the same numbers of people milling around if check-in opens a bit earlier to accommodate the tests.

Airports spent millions expanding to accommodate the A380, maybe they need to spend some money to build testing stations (and waiting rooms).

Those prices are quite reasonable

 

[justinbrett]

Melbourne airport just established a PCR 'on departure' facility: Melbourne Airport - Passenger Information | Melbourne Airport

But putting the practicalities of that aside, perhaps there should be a 15-minute rapid test at the airport, with any initial positives referred to the full PCR? Should in theory be the same numbers of people milling around if check-in opens a bit earlier to accommodate the tests.

Airports spent millions expanding to accommodate the A380, maybe they need to spend some money to build testing stations (and waiting rooms).

NSW considered this and thought it would be a bottleneck for travellers - better for them to disperse and get tested throughout the city.

 

[ayushamity]

https://www.singaporeair.com/en_UK/au/media-centre/news-alert/?id=kuprqd3a

If anyone is unvaxxed/non recognized vaxx, might want to consider this. 2 x DFAT flights from singapore on 2 and 8 November.

 

[33kft]

But putting the practicalities of that aside, perhaps there should be a 15-minute rapid test at the airport, with any initial positives referred to the full PCR? Should in theory be the same numbers of people milling around if check-in opens a bit earlier to accommodate the tests.

I won't pretend to be an expert on this but I happened to tune in to a discussion on ABC 774 recently where they were discussing the merits of rapid antigen testing for school children at home and they said something along the lines of it being fairly common to get false negatives with the rapid tests and their panel of experts found that rapid tests would compromise the process of people attending for PCR tests when they reasonably believe there has been contact or symptoms.

 

[Must...Fly!]

I won't pretend to be an expert on this but I happened to tune in to a discussion on ABC 774 recently where they were discussing the merits of rapid antigen testing for school children at home and they said something along the lines of it being fairly common to get false negatives with the rapid tests and their panel of experts found that rapid tests would compromise the process of people attending for PCR tests when they reasonably believe there has been contact or symptoms.

There is lots of opinion on this

Covid: Lateral flow tests more accurate than first thought, study finds

Positive results from the widely-used rapid Covid tests should be trusted, say UCL researchers.

www.google.com

 

[Jousams]

I won't pretend to be an expert on this but I happened to tune in to a discussion on ABC 774 recently where they were discussing the merits of rapid antigen testing for school children at home and they said something along the lines of it being fairly common to get false negatives with the rapid tests and their panel of experts found that rapid tests would compromise the process of people attending for PCR tests when they reasonably believe there has been contact or symptoms.

Our nations foremost infectious disease expert, Norman Swan, also said we were 2 weeks behind Italy in the initial outbreak.

Anything on the abc in relation to covid should be taken with a grain of salt.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

NSW considered this and thought it would be a bottleneck for travellers - better for them to disperse and get tested throughout the city.

I dunno... you either have 1000 people milling about in the gate area, or 1000 people milling about in the pre-checkin testing area. Airports would need to adapt. (Perhaps if they find a way to move the shopping from post to pre departures!)

 

[jakeseven7]

I dunno... you either have 1000 people milling about in the gate area, or 1000 people milling about in the pre-checkin testing area. Airports would need to adapt. (Perhaps if they find a way to move the shopping from post to pre departures!)

Testing will be out the door in a matter of months for travel so no need to get all worried about it.

 

[OATEK]

You are, of course, 100% correct.

I am very supportive of the seemingly new pragmatic risk-based approach to decision making in NSW, I just wish they had taken a bit more heed of the lessons and experience of others (yes, including last year's failures here in VIC) when things were going well for them before the limo event in June.

I have a friend (an ex-QF pilot) who has been working as a driver transporting arriving crews and passengers since late last year. They work in pairs (driver & communicator) and right from the start he was required to wear full PPE (protective suit, mask, shield and gloves). When vaccines first became available he and cohabiting family members were required to get vaccinated. Six months later you have the much-pilloried limo driver hung out to dry when if turns out NSW did not require him to wear PPE or be vaccinated. Not his fault. There were no state or national standards, and I hope that our governments have learnt from that.

I know of a QF A380 FO who had to do labouring for a long period, but who is now getting a seat in the B787. An A380 FA who is driving for Sydney trains.

My brother on the other hand was at the airport (SYD) day after day meeting passengers from overseas, with inadequate PPE. Can't help but think that the few outbreaks that we had in both NSW & Vic could have been much worse.

Lots of lessons to be learned, but not all bad. The death toll here has been nothing like where a large part of our family lives (the UK).

 

[PineappleSkip]

perhaps there should be a 15-minute rapid test at the airport

I got the one hour RT-PCR test from them at SYD and the result came back in about 45 minutes. Not a huge difference.

Not sure how it will cope from 1 Nov, it is currently done in a tent at the departures forecourt and they only allow one person (or maybe 2) inside at a time.

Cheers skip

 

[arrow]

Think about it this way, if it weren't for them you'd be in lockdown till 2024.

Yes!!! Haha, it forced the king of lockdowns (Andrew’s) to embrace living with Covid

 

[Grimace1]

Eye spy with my little eye...

Edit: Well that was really easy to obtain. Took less than 30 seconds from start to finish.

One thing I did notice is that Firefox doesn't save it as a pdf file and I needed to edit the file to add .pdf to fix the issue.

 

[mhouse165]

Is there any information about what is considered sufficient proof of vaccination from overseas? I'm arriving back in Australia December 1st with my Canadian husband for an extended visit. We are travelling Qantas and haven't found much info about what will be accepted. Still have a few weeks to go of course but I'm the type of person that likes to be organized yesterday and I'm getting nervous that they will require some complex certificate with QR code, batch numbers etc etc. Our province is currently not providing that much information on our printable vaccine records. That being said other canadian travellers are using the current print outs for travel to other countries such as the US and UK and it seems to be accepted.

 

[PineappleSkip]

Eye spy with my little eye... View attachment 262468

Edit: Well that was really easy to obtain. Took less than 30 seconds from start to finish.

One thing I did notice is that Firefox doesn't save it as a pdf file and I needed to edit the file to add .pdf to fix the issue.

For additional entertainment, you can download the DFAT app called VDS-NC checker and scan the QR code to see if it works. It did for me

Cheers skip

 

[Tiki]

The international certs are available in the Medicare app on phones as well. They link to your passport.

 

[Doctor of Travel]

Our hand hasn’t been forced. NSW Health would always follow the TGA vaccines that are recognized by them as the individual being fully vaccinated wherever in the world that was.
We shouldn’t have a two tier system
Pfizer/AZ/Moderna/JJ to home
Sinovac to hotel
The wording on the Govt press release was inaccurate to start with most likely.

Yes, no two tiered system please

Vaccinated - free to do anything
Unvaccinated - denied entry

For the record, I was fully vaxxed since May

All the problems of vaccine recognition and entry bureaucracy would be mitigated if we didn't need to check vaccine evidence in the first place. Despite being fully vaxxed since May, I am still considered un-vaccinated for the record because some dumb cough in the AIR can't spell my name right. I'm getting my paper cert soon and hopefully the name would bear some resemblance to my actual name so that I can travel again.

 

[Berlin]

Is there any information about what is considered sufficient proof of vaccination from overseas? I'm arriving back in Australia December 1st with my Canadian husband for an extended visit. We are travelling Qantas and haven't found much info about what will be accepted. Still have a few weeks to go of course but I'm the type of person that likes to be organized yesterday and I'm getting nervous that they will require some complex certificate with QR code, batch numbers etc etc. Our province is currently not providing that much information on our printable vaccine records. That being said other canadian travellers are using the current print outs for travel to other countries such as the US and UK and it seems to be accepted.

I'm a little bit nervous about this too and I'm only coming from across the ditch. But we don't have anything Digital here (yet) so all I have as proof is a little paper card and, luckily, I've also had my vaccines added into the little yellow WHO booklet. Still- feels odd to just rely on this, I obviously also am the kind of person who likes to organise these things weeks before.

 

[jakeseven7]

I'm a little bit nervous about this too and I'm only coming from across the ditch. But we don't have anything Digital here (yet) so all I have as proof is a little paper card and, luckily, I've also had my vaccines added into the little yellow WHO booklet. Still- feels odd to just rely on this, I obviously also am the kind of person who likes to organise these things weeks before.

NZ doesn’t have anything digital at all? Weird.

 

[Tiki]

From 01 November 2021, all Singapore Airlines flights to Sydney are ‘For Eligible Passengers Only' (FEPO) flights. While these FEPO flights can already be booked using cash, they can only be redeemed with miles starting 23 October 2021.

For Eligible Passengers Only (FEPO) flights​

Singapore Airlines will begin flying quarantine-free For Eligible Passengers Only (FEPO) flights from Singapore to Sydney starting 01 November 2021.

To board this flight, all passengers must meet the following requirements:

• You are an Australian citizen, permanent resident, or their immediate family member.
• Being fully vaccinated with a TGA approved or recognised vaccine, such as Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Janssen-Cilag, Moderna, Coronavac, or Covishield. Children under the age of 12 and those who cannot be vaccinated due to a medical condition are exempted from this requirement.
• Presenting a vaccination certificate issued by a national/state-level public health authority or an accredited vaccination provider, in the form of a digital or paper certificate. A letter will not be accepted.
• Presenting a negative result for a PCR test taken within 72 hours before flight departure.
• Completing the Australia Travel Declaration at least 72 hours before flight departure.
• Further requirements may apply. Please check the latest requirements to confirm your eligibility before booking.

 

[Berlin]

NZ doesn’t have anything digital at all? Weird.

Yep bizarre. Has been promised for ages now but as per usual, things take a little longer over here. We also have requested special letters for "International travel" but that has been two months ago and we still haven't received anything.

So, that little card and the (handwritten!) entries into the WHO booklet it is. I'm fairly confident that they simply go by that at check in and hopefully also when we ask a GP or pharmacist on arrival to add this into into the AIR but it's all a bit odd. A few weeks back still (or even now still in some places!) people were kept from attending their loved ones' funerals while now all of a sudden, some handwritten vaccination cards are all that is needed to travel internationally. Weird times this has been and it's still not over it seems...