It’s an important day in Australia, as its borders open to international tourists for the first time in nearly two years. The Qantas Group is involved as it plans to bring over 14,000 passengers into the country.
The Sydney Harbour Bridge – Image, Economy Class and Beyond.
The first flight to be welcomed to Australia for tourists was QF12 from Los Angeles was the first to land at 6.20 and flights from other international destinations including Vancouver, Singapore and London are due to arrive in Sydney throughout the day.
Jetstar’s first unrestricted international flight JQ18 is set to touch down in Melbourne from Phuket at 10.05 and QF70 from Delhi to Melbourne will arrive at 13.35.
In Quotes
Qantas Group CEO Alan Joyce said:
“It’s fair to say we’ve all been waiting a long time to welcome visitors back to Australia. The thousands of international tourists arriving this week and many more over the coming months will help kickstart the tourism industry which has done it tough for the past couple of years.
“We’re in this position today thanks to the millions of Australians who rolled up their sleeves to get the jab and give the Australian Government and state and territory governments’ confidence that we can safely reopen to the world.
“We can clearly see from the Australian Government’s announcement that people are very keen to come back to Australia, and we continue to see strong bookings out of the US and UK, as well as South Africa and Canada.”
Rebuilding the Qantas International network
After virtually two years of isolation, Qantas is moving back into international travel. the network has had some usage, when it restarted its international network on the 1st November 2021 (for Australian citizens and visa holders).
Since then, routes have been coming back on stream, with Sydney to Dallas rejoining the network on the 16th of February.
Other destinations operated by Qantas that are due to restart include:
- Brisbane to Singapore – From 27 March
- Sydney to Manila – From 27 March
- Sydney to Denpasar – From 28 March
- Darwin to Dili – From 30 March
- Brisbane to Los Angeles – From 1 April
Destinations that are operated by Jetstar that are restarting include:
- Melbourne to Honolulu – From 1 March
- Sydney to Honolulu – From 3 March
- Melbourne to Denpasar – From 14 March
- Sydney to Denpasar – From 15 March
For those who called Australia home, or want to visit, the time is now
It’s been a long two years – especially for those who have needed to return or reconnect with family, whilst trying to work through Australia’s immigration system and their reluctance to let anyone in.
For those people seeking to reconnect, the time is now.
Of course, you’ll have to meet the entry criteria – which are at https://covid19.homeaffairs.gov.au/coming-australia.
You may also need to check state advice too at https://www.australia.gov.au/states on their entry requirements.
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