EK suspending flights from East Coast Oz
 

...due to operational reasons. Surprised it took this long.

Cargo only flights on the 777 will continue.

The share of pax inbound is minuscule when spread around now.

Chinese carriers are full going out. CZ filling an A380 out of a Melbourne each day.

I wonder who all these people (500) are that are leaving each day, considering Australian citizens can’t leave. There's a ban on overseas travel from Australia. You can’t leave Australia unless you get an exemption from the Department of Home Affairs.

If you have "another" passport, you can leave

Are you sure about that?

My wife, a permanent resident but not yet holding Australian citizenship, can not leave without applying for and being granted an exemption.
That is, she is not even an Australian citizen and she can not leave.
If she does gain the exemption and is able to leave then she will almost certainly not be able to return.

It's difficult to imagine 500 Melbournians per day gaining that exemption.

It’s not that simple.
BF check the number of days you have spent in Australia in the past 2 years to consider whether you can claim you are a resident of another country or not. Not just passport/Permanent ID card holder.
Although I predominantly resided and worked overseas for the past 20 odd years, for various reasons I travelled back and forth regularly in the past 2 years, making them question whether I was really resident in another country.
I was stopped from departing initially until further evidence and proof of employment was provided.

Seeing it’s only a undefined suspension my belief is this is a ploy by EK to get the oz government to subsidise them which in typical fashion they will.
The Australian government would rather have Australian crew stood down and spend the money to subsidise foreign carriers in the name of competition than to get us all back to work.

McCormack can then continue to call all of us lounge lizards for not getting another job And remaining on jobkeeper. :rolleyes:

The Federal Government needs to step up and ensure that our citizens are repatriated ASAP. It’s a legal requirement to do so btw. The only airline that has the capability and enforces the strictest quarantine regime under the guidance of Australian state and federal authorities is QANTAS. Why have a national airline with the capability and not use it? Our government would rather put subsidised state owned airlines ahead of its own national airline in order to save a few bucks. So to the people stuck overseas with no way of getting home, you can thank your Australian Government for this hypocritical policy. If you’re a tennis player you’re welcome but an average Joe or Jolene Blow piss off and wait.

For the journos that read this forum.
Qantas crew that fly internationally are required to remain in their room whilst overseas. That is upon leaving the aircraft they travel directly to the hotel, close their room door and don’t leave their room until reporting for the next flight. Overseas based carrier’s crew are free to roam around under the guidance of their state rules once back in their country of origin. For Qantas crew, upon arrival back in OZ it’s straight home or a hotel for the mandatory 14 day quarantine period or their next duty whichever comes first.

apparently Emirates had 2 crew test positive last week upon arrival.

Troo believer
Not a legal requirement. What is your legislation reference?

Vag227.... trying to understand your question? Is it pertaining to Qantas crew or overseas crew?
in the case of Qantas, break the rules at your peril. International crew March to the beat of a completely different drum.
As noted by troo

https://www.unhcr.org/uk/3bfe68d32.pdf

Pretty sure thats wrong if you are PR of australia you need permission to leave. Not sure what they would a do if you left on another passport but you must get permission to leave

If you are an Australian citizen or a permanent resident you cannot leave Australia due to COVID-19 restrictions unless you have an exemption. You can apply online but you must meet at least one of the following:

I think you’ll find most QF International crew have no interest in spending their life locked in hotel room away from their families. QF wouldn’t be able to crew much of an increase in flying so the Aus government may as well subsidise EK.

Absolute garbage flyboy......That’s why their eoi was oversubscribed :ugh:

Ummm ... that only applies to refugees

The 1951 Refugee Convention defines a refugee as: “someone who is unable or unwilling to return to their country of origin owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion.”

Troo believer
Irrelevant. What Australian legislation applies?

International law states no country will deny its citizens entry at the border. If we can get home, they have to let us in.

It’s also basic human decency to want to look after your citizens. A concept you find hard to grasp

EK aren’t “fishing for a subsidy” 🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️

Why are they still flying to Perth then?

It’s most likely because of the testing requirements for crew on arrival, something WA doesn’t do....
(which is a good thing by the way).

Its not “500 a day”. If you looked at the schedule you’ll find the flights only run once or twice a week.

As for leaving the country.
- if you have residency in another country (visa) they’ll let you go.
- if you can prove you have a family emergency etc they’ll let you go
- business people are ok of course....

HOWEVER the “family emergency” example (and others) they also expect you to sign a declaration saying you won’t return for at least 3 months.

But the massive issue with all of this is, they let citizens leave knowing that there ARE NOT enough quarantine spaces for them to return. Let alone the other Aussies already waiting to get back.

SQ are continuing flights to Australia so there is a way for Aussies to get home, and Singapore needs to maintain its links with the outside world as it’s not self sufficient in many areas such as food production.

With QF not being a hub airline, it’s unable to concentrate pax and cargo loads from multiple destinations and would have to operate virtually empty direct flights which would be hugely expensive. Better to let another country bear the cost. The postal links are maintained, important cargo can still be delivered and the handful of pax who absolutely must travel are accommodated.

SIA crew are subject to very strict precautions including full PPE, confinement to their hotel rooms on layovers, wearing an electronic tracker and a COVID test on their return followed by more testing at regular intervals.

Vaccinations are already in progress for Singapore aircrews.

The right of return to your own country is a basic human right and Australia should be obliged to accept any citizen who wants to enter even if it means emergency quarantine facilities run by the army need to be provided.

This is a link to Wikipedia so it can’t be taken as definite however the article has links to official websites.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right_of_return

How many of these "Australians" have been back in their native country for a long time,and because we are reasonably Covid safe,want to return back here.

Quite right. A country cannot refuse entry of it's own citizens. However our best and brightest are circumventing this requirement by placing caps on passenger numbers on flights, this may be legal. So if you arrive at the border of Australia you will be processed into the country and not turned away. Private yacht, aircraft, drift in by way of a refugee style boat and you will allowed entry (then quarantine). A neat legal work around brought to you by our elected reps. Of course foreign nationals who play tennis...come on in.

What’s it matter?

I was waiting for some of these comments..... There’s always someone like you to bring this up.

In any given year the Australian Bureau of Statistics estimates there’s around 1 million Australians living and working overseas. Australians. You know, people like you that have a legal right to live in Australia....

They don’t need a second “native country” to be over there for a few years. Likewise all those imported workers in Australia (on legitimate visas) don’t necessarily become Australians.

It’a not “because we are reasonably COVID safe” that they want to return. It’s because they have lost the jobs they’ve had. Or family members become sick. Or it’s simply time to come back. You think Australia is this awesome place that everyone looks upon with envy....

Reality is most people around the world are privately laughing at us. And in the year of COVID actually find it disgusting how we are treating our own citizens.

I believe for a long time, Singapore didn’t allow transit passengers. So their role as a hub was basically unavailable. I think even now the transit opportunities are limited.

Qatar (especially) and EK are some of the very few hub airlines still moving people to a large number of destinations.

You obviously haven’t worked for EK long enough to know that crew requirements won’t be part of EK’s decision making.

The quota of arrivals into WA must still be financially viable for EK, nothing more, nothing less. I can guarantee if a subsidy is offered to EK to continue the east coast services they will be continued.

EK making decisions based on crew requirements, thanks, I haven’t had a good laugh like that for a long time!

Singapore is currently allowing transit passengers who can meet all the entry requirements to their intended destination, and can produce negative COVID test results, to pass through Singapore. UK pax are allowed to Australia but must remain onboard the aircraft in Singapore and are confined to a seperate area of the cabin for the entire flight. Restrictions are gradually easing but it's early stages yet.

I'm waiting to see all the legal proceedings start against the government once those stranded abroad are able to return home. There was a case 20 years ago of an Australian citizen who mistakenly deported and ended up getting $4.5 million in compensation. I wouldn't be surprised to see a class action later this year once relative normality returns.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vivian_Solon

A citizen has the right to return to their own country end of story. Other countries managed to provide emergency quarantine facilities at short notice even if they weren't of hotel standard. If necessary the army could have provided secure tented accommodation which would have been a better option for many than being on the street in a foreign country running out of money.

Its not for the “benefit” of the crew....

And yes EK do make decisions based on crew requirements. By that I mean relevant COVID rules in respective countries. It’s why we don’t do layovers in HK for example. A lot of other destinations were long turnarounds for the same reason. Had nothing to do with whether the crew were happy.

The ONLY difference between Australian destinations is the crew testing requirements.

Qantas has the crew, aircraft and capability but the government thinks its smarter to use foreign airlines and crew over our own. This government would rather use a foreign,subsidised airline and let Australian airline staff whither on jobkeeper. The logic? There is none!
None of this or the fact that tennis players are allowed into Victoria yet the state’s own citizens are not doesn’t pass the pub test.

piss weak leadership from ScoMo and co. You’ve been dithering for far too long. Get with the program and pull your fingers out. You said everyone wanting to return home would do so by Christmas. Didn’t happen. Pathetic bureaucratic bumbling at its worse. The states bear some responsibility too for this mess.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-01-...nment/13064006

Perth is closer to DXB than the other capital cities and only one port is needed as it connects into the QF network. Pax arrivals are heavily limited into WA but loads may be so low that it isn't a major consideration when freight and maintaining a presence take priority. Dubai is similar to Singapore in needing to maintain links with the outside world, and their government is probably subsidising the flights.

The Federal Government will schedule another 20 repatriation flights to bring stranded Australians home.
Acting Foreign Minister Simon Birmingham said flights from "priority areas" determined by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) around the world will be organised by the Commonwealth over the next couple of months.

Travellers will be taken to the Howard Springs facility in the Northern Territory, as well as to locations in Canberra and Tasmania.

Mr Birmingham said the extra repatriation flights were "over and above" the existing caps on returning international travellers.

He added: "[This] will create additional places for Australians to get home over and above those caps by transporting people … [into] locations that are willing to work above those caps on a case-by-case basis.

"We'll work closely with authorities in those jurisdictions to make sure that it is all done with the strictest procedures and protocols to keep people safe."

I’m so glad the government is here to save us.... NOT!

If the quarantine system was organised properly, there is already huge capacity on existing flights to uplift inbound Australians. It’s not the flights that are the issue, it’s the heavily restricted cap on arrivals.

Ek will carry on cargo flights but the passenger cap is the problem.

“Under the new rules, New South Wales will move to a weekly cap of about 1,500 people, Western Australia and Queensland 500.”

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-01-...sbane/13063572

EK would like to fly more pax but its just not viable due to restrictions applied by different state politics with each state premier trying to out do his neighboring premiers! So probably easier just to stop pax flights until it all calms down!

All these caps are is an admission of incompetence, every other country seems to be able to accept its citizens back without undue delay. Frankly I can’t understand how they can get away with it. Guess no one gives two $&@!s unless it’s them.

Following a Qantas crew on an International flight would make a good short current affairs length story.

Mjb

does “Australia” really exist anymore? Just a whole heap of ‘countries’ run by morons.

So many half truths in this post:
1. "The only airline that has the capability and enforces the strictest quarantine regime under the guidance of Australian state and federal authorities is QANTAS" UNTRUE, CX and SQ have been stricter than QANTAS for the last 9 months, confining their crews to their rooms 24/7 in Australia and most other places on pain of being fired. In some ports where no room service is provided they can go as far as the lobby to pick up deliveries - only if the hotel won't bring it to the door. They were also wearing masks inflight before QF

2. "Our government would rather put subsidised state owned airlines ahead of its own national airline in order to save a few bucks". UNTRUE. QF has vacated the field since March and while ME carriers are state owned CX,Delta, American and JAL to name a some are not state owned. All have received some sort of COVID financial assistance direct or indirect - so has QF.

3."For the journos that read this forum.
Qantas crew that fly internationally are required to remain in their room whilst overseas. That is upon leaving the aircraft they travel directly to the hotel, close their room door and don’t leave their room until reporting for the next flight". TRUE - join the club, to my certain knowledge SQ and CX have been doing this for 9 months now. These airlines COVID test all crew after every return to home base and have been for many months. Australia started this only last week. These two airlines have brought zero COVID positive crew to Australia.

4."The Federal Government needs to step up and ensure that our citizens are repatriated ASAP. It’s a legal requirement to do so btw" TRUE - we are in agreement.

Well said D. I concur with your statements.

Not being a Lawyer, I'll take your word for it.

However, I really fail to see just why Taxpayers money should be used to repatriate anyone who had been living overseas for any period of time.

Just my opinion. Flame away if you like.

What drivel is written here.
The Feds are chartering 20 flights for repatriation right now...