Finally, the news 25 million Australians have been waiting for. After eighteen months of lockdowns, stay at home orders and travel restrictions, the Australian Prime Minister has finally confirmed that international travel borders will open from mid-November.
Overseas travel will be able to resume for fully vaccinated travellers from next month in states where the 80% threshold has been reached. First on the runway is NSW, expected to hit the 80 per cent vaccinate rate by mid to late October.
Morrison also confirmed that fully vaccinated permanent residents returning to NSW will be able to home quarantine for a week instead of paying for costly hotel quarantine for a fortnight. The fourteen-day quarantine will still be in place for anyone not fully vaccinated or vaccinated with a vaccine not recognised by the TGA.
Founder of Ski Holidays and Tours, Sue Thorley said today, “This is a gamechanger for the beleaguered travel industry. We’ve been clicked out of our skis for all of last winter in Canada, as well as massive limitations and burst bubbles for two southern hemisphere ski seasons. Pent up demand is huge. Our phones are running hot and our team are fielding hundreds of email enquiries. It’s the good news story we needed.”
“We need home quarantine pilots in New South Wales and South Australia to conclude and be successful so they can be rolled out at scale,” said Scott Morrison today.
Qantas quickly followed with their announcement they are bringing their international restart forward, with flights from Sydney to Los Angeles and London hitting the runway from November as well, and recommitted their schedule to and from Vancouver as from Dec 18th, 2021.
Air Canada is scheduled to resume services between Vancouver and Sydney, from Dec 17th, 2021.
Go to our COVID Travel Advice hub for all the up to the minute travel advice for travelling to Canada and returning to your home port.
