International arrival caps into Australia…

[Probablymadness...]

Apologies in advance if this isn’t the correct forum, but I imagined there’s a wealth of knowledge here on how airlines manage Australia’s international arrival caps…

I understood that when you book a flight into Australia, it also effectively books a 14 day hotel quarantine place for you automatically. Ie, the airline allocates you one of the hotel places it itself has been allocated, and that’s the reason for such limited seat availability. It’s now a few days after the announcement of the halving of the cap from mid July, but it still appears possible to book a flight from London to Oz for October this year.

Does anyone know if the airlines are already factoring in this reduced cap, together with the inevitable re-booking demands of those with existing tickets who will be affected by the reduction? I’m a bit concerned at booking an October return flight London-Australia if there’s been no allowance for these factors and that it’s almost certain I’ll get (maybe endlessly…) rescheduled and stuck in the UK indefinitely.

Completely understand that nothing is guaranteed and it’s a very fluid situation, just wanted to make sure I wasn’t spending money on a ticket that the airline almost certainly already knows isn’t going to happen!

[Fonz121]

There’s a high chance you will get stranded. Unless you pay for first or business on a carrier that isn’t about to pull out of Australia you’ll probably get stuck.

If you’re on Facebook, head to “Australian’s stuck around the world” to get a good idea about the current situation those poor bastards find themselves in. It’s an absolute disgrace that our own citizens are being left stranded to appease the hysterical bogan masses.

There’s no reason they can’t quarantine at home if vaccinated.

[halfmoon]

There's also a chance that by October that cap will go back to the previous cap.
it's mostly because the virus is in the community spreading and close contacts are forced into hotel quarantine if they can't isolate at home.
personally I don't think they'll be able to contain this one.

[over_centre]

I'm in London now and scheduled to fly London-Melbourne on QR next week. Fortunately the company I am working for purchased Business fares in the hope it will save me from being off-loaded.

So far I've have not received any communication from the airline or the Aus authorities.

If it helps anyone I can post here about any changes to the process or my travel.

BTW I have received both Covid jabs (in Australia) so will see if that holds any weight.

[LostWanderer]

There's also a chance that by October that cap will go back to the previous cap.
it's mostly because the virus is in the community spreading and close contacts are forced into hotel quarantine if they can't isolate at home.
personally I don't think they'll be able to contain this one.

Lets hope they start to raise numbers again by October but fear is a powerful thing right now and politically if it is more popular to keep the caps or even lock things up further they absolutely will, I’m seeing a lot more support for harder restrictions on inbound pax and international travel than anything else. Still expecting no great changes for anything here til mid 2022 or later at this rate of vaccination.

[JPJP]

Lets hope they start to raise numbers again by October but fear is a powerful thing right now and politically if it is more popular to keep the caps or even lock things up further they absolutely will, I’m seeing a lot more support for harder restrictions on inbound pax and international travel than anything else. Still expecting no great changes for anything here til mid 2022 or later at this rate of vaccination.

Its infuriating. A country that’s done so well protecting its population is now paralysed, economically stunted and isolated through incompetence. Do they even realise there’s a vaccine for this virus ? And it works.

Over 60% of the Australian population live in 5 cities. The U.S. were vaccinating 3 million a day at the peak. Let’s half that number to 1.5 million a day to account for sheer idiocy and blind feckery. You could mass vaccinate the majority of the population in 10 days. Open the country to at least the vaccinated citizens. Then the rest.

Every time I see the PMs face I think of Bugs Bunny’s prescient quote. “What a maroon’.

[Foxxster]

Its infuriating. A country that’s done so well protecting its population is now paralysed, economically stunted and isolated through incompetence. Do they even realise there’s a vaccine for this virus ? And it works.

Over 60% of the Australian population live in 5 cities. The U.S. were vaccinating 3 million a day at the peak. Let’s half that number to 1.5 million a day to account for sheer idiocy and blind feckery. You could mass vaccinate the majority of the population in 10 days. Open the country to at least the vaccinated citizens. Then the rest.

Every time I see the PMs face I think of Bugs Bunny’s prescient quote. “What a maroon’.


the US population is nearly 13 times greater than ours.

3,000,000 divided by 13 is 230,000 a day.

we are around 130,000 a day which will ramp up with pharmacies coming online, more dedicated vaccine centres and with increased supply of Pfizer. It will further ramp in Sept and October with even more Pfizer and Moderna . You can’t give vaccines you don’t have.

Yes we are behind for a number of reasons, bad luck choosing AstraZeneca as our main vaccine, the one the uk has used as its major one and we chose because we can actually make it here, so at the time actually a sensible decision. There have been roll out issues, I guess getting federal and state health public servants to actually do some work was always going to be problematic.

[MelbourneFlyer]

American Airlines looks to be the first of several or many airlines which will pull out of Australia in the short term due to the new passenger caps.

https://www.executivetraveller.com/news/american-airlines-suspends-sydney-flights-pulls-out-of-australia

[industry insider]

From the article

The government plans to boost the number of underwritten flights which operate as charter services – the bulk of which have been flown by Qantas – and arrive at Darwin's dedicated Howard Springs quarantine facility.

They built that Howard Springs runway quickly then.

[Global Aviator]

From the article



They built that Howard Springs runway quickly then.

A short landing would have them there nicely!

[Turnleft080]

From the article



They built that Howard Springs runway quickly then.
YMKT, fabulous strip Gulf air was a regular operator.
Plus plenty of alternates down the Stuart Hwy, Livingston, Pell, Fenton, MacDonald.

[Square Bear]

Foxxstar, ,

perhaps another reason why the country is behind is that the Feds let a boated Public Service initially run the programme, combined with a mishmash of parochial State governments having a say.

Sadly can’t remove the States from the equation, but at least the Public Servant Management have been replaced by Military logistics.

[Torukmacto]

One idea gaining traction is to import vaccinated people from overseas as a way of getting the % of Australians vaccinated up ?

[601]

Yes we are behind for a number of reasons, bad luck choosing AstraZeneca as our main vaccine, the one the uk has used as its major one and we chose because we can actually make it here, so at the time actually a sensible decision. There have been roll out issues, I guess getting federal and state health public servants to actually do some work was always going to be problematic.

We have the utterly stupid position with 1a people who, since February, have been able to get a vaccination complaining that they will not be able to meet the September deadline. Others have commentated that they would leave the job rather than have a jab.

Where have they been living? Where is there personal and social responsibility?
Oh, that right it the Govt's fault.

In all the (r@p that comes from the ABC about why we are lagging in this and that, why we should have done this or that, why the AZ is this the Pfizer is that, it is all too confusing, I cannot remember anyone looking straight into the camera and saying;
"Stop complaining and blaming everyone else, just go out and get the b00dy jab"

We have a small vaccine clinic set up out side our local library. Went past the other day and the staff were standing around with nothing to do.
Don't say jabs are not available. My local GP was ringing around asking for clients.

[krismiler]

QR and SQ would be my primary choices if booking flights to Australia, with SQ slightly ahead as Singapore needs to maintain air links for essential supplies. Either one would do the right thing if a flight had to be canceled.

Because the USA and UK suffered badly with COVID people were keen to get vaccinated as soon as possible, hence the high rate of coverage.

Australian was largely spared due to early lockdown, hence much less interest in getting a jab as the consequences weren't staring you in the face.

[Foxxster]

601.

blame the GREAT SCARE CAMPAIGN done on AstraZeneca. It is the main vaccine used in the UK, a country that many wish to compare our vaccine rollout and rates with. There is plenty of that for everyone but people have been scared off because there is a one in two million chance of getting a blood clot. It was the best choice to go with as we do have the capability to manufacture it ourselves. For the other type , Pfizer and Moderna it would take a couple of years to create that capacity here. And had we gone down that expensive and time consuming path, it may well have been found that it was Pfizer that caused issues not AstraZeneca. Nobody knew which vaccine would have issues and which wouldn’t this time last year when contracts were being signed.



and someone mentioned the bloated useless public service. Having had dealings with some state health public servants and also having lived in Canberra for a while, you understate their ability to achieve very little over a very long time yet think they are gods gift. Reality and the public service are two mutually exclusive sets. This is particularly acute in a Canberra where you now have senior public servants who are third and fourth generation public servants. They have often had both parents who were public servants, totally immune to the economic cycles. Guaranteed pay every fortnight, until fairly recently, defined benefit pension on retirement. Impossible to sack unless they kill someone. They know the system , and how to play it..

[mattyj]

Apart from family or bereavement type issues, why would anyone fly back to a country that’s enacting pandemic protocols that the rest of the world has demonstrated don’t work and mostly make the situation worse 9 months ago?!

beggars belief!

[601]

Apart from family or bereavement type issues, why would anyone fly back to a country that’s enacting pandemic protocols that the rest of the world has demonstrated don’t work and mostly make the situation worse 9 months ago?!
So, how come there is an endless tale of woe from people wanting to return here?

[havick]

So, how come there is an endless tale of woe from people wanting to return here?

Probably because they don’t like paying for a mortgage in Australia and accommodation wherever they are presently