Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack has responded to news that Qantas has reopened bookings for its international network from July 2021.
The airline provided new hope that Australian travellers could return to the skies in a matter of months, after listing tickets to destinations including London, the US, Hong Kong and Singapore for sale.
A spokesperson from the airline told 7NEWS.com.au it has “aligned the selling of our international services to reflect our expectation that international travel will begin to restart from July 2021.”
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“We continue to review and update our international schedule in response to the developing COVID-19 situation,” she said.
Despite this, the federal government has not indicated when overseas travel will resume.
The top priority
In a statement on Tuesday, McCormack said the health and safety of Australians remains the government’s top priority, and international borders would only reopen “when international arrivals do not pose a risk to Australians”.
“Decisions about when international travel resumes will be made by the Australian Government,” he added.
“The Australian Government is working on travel arrangements with countries, such as New Zealand, that have low community infections.
“Operations and ticket sales on particular routes are commercial decisions for airlines.”
Australians who intend to leave the country are currently required to apply for an exemption and those returning are subject to a mandatory 14-day hotel quarantine stay at their own expense.
Back in November, Qantas CEO Alan Joyce said Australians travelling on the airline will need to be vaccinated in order to fly.
“For international travellers, we will ask people to have a vaccination before they get on the aircraft,’’ Joyce said.
“Certainly, for international visitors coming out and people leaving the country we think that’s a necessity.”
Australia’s first vaccines are expected to be approved later this month, with the prime minister saying Australia would be “well into the vaccine” in the first quarter of the year.
He said it was important all Australians had “total confidence” in the vaccines.
More than 12.3 million vaccine doses have so far been administered across 30 countries, including 4.33 million in the United States and 4.5 million in China, according to an analysis by Bloomberg.
Australia has agreements with Pfizer-BioNTech, Oxford-AstraZeneca and Novavax.
- with AAP