Holiday-starved Australians will be able to hop on an international flight for the first time in more than a year.
Holiday-starved Australians will be able to catch an international flight for the first in more than a year beginning at 11.59pm on April 18.
The quarantine-free trans-Tasman arrangement was set in stone by New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern on Tuesday afternoon.
However, she stressed the arrangement was fragile.
She said there were three responses in place should there be a local coronavirus outbreak in Australia.
They were to continue, pause or suspend flights.
“For instance, if a case is found that is quite clearly linked to a border worker in a quarantine facility and is well contained, you’ll likely see travel continue in the same way as you could see life continue if that happened here in Australia,” she said.
“If, however, a case was found that was not clearly linked to the border, and a state responded by a short lockdown to identify more information, we’d likely pause flights from that state in the same way we would stop travel into and out of a region in New Zealand as if it were going into a full lockdown.
“And if we saw multiple cases of unknown origin, we would likely suspend flights for a set period of time.”
She described the move as “world leading”.
“This is an important step forward in our COVID response and represents an arrangement I do not believe we have seen in any other part of the world,” she said.
“That is, safely opening up international travel to another country while continuing to pursue a strategy of elimination and a commitment to keeping the virus out.”
She acknowledged it had been a long time coming, with the prospect first floated last May, but said it could not have safely happened earlier.
“When we reflect on the fact that I cannot see or point to any countries in the world that are maintaining a strategy of keeping their countries completely COVID-free, whilst opening up to international travel between each other, that means that, in a way, we are world-leading.
“That’s something that both countries, I think, should be proud of and I think we’re doing it at exactly the right time.”
Before the pandemic, Australians made up almost 40 per cent of international arrivals to New Zealand and contributed around 24 per cent or $2.7 billion of New Zealand’s annual international visitor spend.
TIMELINE: How the travel bubble came to fruition
Here’s a look at the trans-Tasman bubble’s 11-month long journey from declaration to enactment.
February 2020 – Australia and New Zealand begin to close their borders in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
May 2020 – Jacinda Ardern appears at a national cabinet meeting and, with Scott Morrison, agrees to open a trans-Tasman bubble when safe.
May 2020 – Ardern gives her first timeline for a bubble, saying “September is realistic”.
June 2020 – Then-deputy NZ PM Winston Peters calls for a state-by-state bubble, beginning with COVID-free Tasmania.
July 2020 – The Victorian second wave forces New Zealand to pause bubble hopes.
October 2020 – Individual Australian states begin to remove quarantine restrictions for visiting Kiwis, and SA Premier Steven Marshall writes to Ardern asking for a bubble with his COVID-free state.
November 2020 – Ardern reveals an impasse in talks with the Australian Government over outbreak definitions.
December 2020 – In her last press conference of the year, Ardern says the government will scrap quarantine requirements for Australians in the first quarter of 2021.
January 2021 – Ardern hits out at Australia’s decision to suspend quarantine-free travel for Kiwis after two community cases in NZ.
February 2021 – Ardern walks back the first-quarter goal, and reveals a switch in strategy to a state-by-state approach.
March 2021 – The NZ opposition campaigns on the immediate opening of a bubble to kickstart the tourism industry.
April 2021 – Ardern announces the removal date for quarantine measures for Australian travellers – creating the trans-Tasman bubble.
Source: https://bit.ly/3cUSjI8
