On April 19, 2021
The two-way travel between New Zealand and Australia is finally here, 15 destinations were set to have direct routes to their trans-Tasman neighbours.
The nation’s largest airline group Jetstar with servicing 29 flights a week, including a new route between the Gold Coast and Auckland will resume its operation. Also, Qantas and Jetstar workers with about 630 employees will resume their respective duties.
Alan Joyce, the Qantas Chief Executive said that it was a momentous occasion in the nation’s recovery from the virus.
He also said, “The opening of the two-way travel bubble is fantastic for family and friends who are reuniting after so long apart and for the many jobs which are heavily dependent on tourism, it means we’ll be able to get more planes back in the sky and more of our people back to work.”
Before the pandemic, it is known that New Zealand was Australia’s second-largest source of tourists from other countries.
At 80% capacity compared to the days before the pandemic, it is expected that the number of flights will increase once the demand will increase due to the upcoming winter ski season.
Mr. Joyce said, “we’ve seen strong demand since the bubble was announced, with tens of thousands of bookings made in the first few days, we’ve also added more flights to Queenstown to meet expected demand during the peak ski season.”
As the top boss of the flying kangaroo shared that vaccines are the requirement for international travel, just like Iceland and Israel, Australia should also seek proof if the traveller has the vaccine before entering the respective countries.
He also shared that just like other nations such as Taiwan, Japan, and South Pacific nations, once the vaccine rolls out in full swing the airline would look at starting other travel bubbles.
They are still very hopeful that by October, all of the international flights will be able to kickstart despite setbacks to Australia’s COVID-19 vaccine rollout.
There is a new case of COVID-19 in Auckland last week that had cast a cloud over the travel bubble.
It is said that a worker at Auckland’s Grand Millennium hotel was the recorded new case. It was the third case at the hotel after a cleaner tested positive on March 21.
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