Pressure is mounting on governments to reopen trans-Tasman travel as industry groups ask for travellers’ expressions of interest in New Zealand flights leaving as early as 1 July.
The Australian Chamber of Commerce has proposed the Canberra to Wellington route as a “a proof of concept” for the resumption of international flights for “post Covid-19” travel.
Canberra airport has opened a register of interest for flights on 1 and 2 July, however it notes that the dates may be pushed back subject to government approval.
Notionally these would be followed by several weeks of twice-daily flights before opening up to other Australian capital cities.
“The symbolic route will show we have developed a safe and effective method of air travel and encourage the extension of the aviation networks to other destinations across Australia and New Zealand over time,” the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s tourism chair, John Hart, said.
“The tourism opportunity for Australia is to tempt more of the 3.1 million New Zealanders that travel overseas to come to Australia this year. Pre-Covid we received around 1.3 million visitors from New Zealand, leaving about 1.8m holidays up for grabs.”
The managing director of the Canberra airport, Stephen Byron, said there had already been significant interest.
“In the first 15 minutes of [the register] being online there were 35 expressions of interest, in the next 15, there were 13. We hadn’t even put it on Facebook yet,” he said.
No airlines have officially signed on to the plan yet, but Byron said he wasn’t concerned.
“It’s yes and no [from airlines]. I think in some parts of the companies they are waiting for a more of a floodgate reopening, but in half an hour we already filled half a flight so I don’t think getting an airline on board will be a problem.”
The Wellington Chamber of Commerce and Auckland Business Chamber have also thrown their weight behind the proposal.
The proposal would need approval from the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee, comprised of all state and territory chief health officers and chaired by the Australian chief medical officer, but this is unlikely given the short timeframe.
It’s understood that the federal government believes trans-Tasman travel is still several months away, as it focuses on easing domestic border closures still in place around Australia.
“I am confident that both Australia and New Zealand will be ready and willing to progress as soon as the health advice allows and all necessary safeguards are in place. While I want this to happen as soon as possible I wouldn’t quite put a timeline on it yet,” the federal tourism minister, Simon Birmingham, said.
“Getting tourists moving again will be critical to the recovery of jobs and tourism businesses around Australia. New Zealand is the first and, right now, the only international market that we could safely and easily agree to open up to.”
Byron has criticised suggestions that international travel to New Zealand should wait until August or September.
“I think there are going to be hundreds and thousands more business going broke and jobs disappearing if we wait till August. Clearly, if there is a deterioration in the health system then we will go to a later date, but that doesn’t seem to be the case,” he said.
“Letting this travel slip back until the end of July would be the same as pushing lockdown back or a week at the beginning of the pandemic … There are hundreds of businesses on the edge of a cliff, absolutely desperate.”
The Australian and New Zealand Tourism Working group is also developing plans to establish a trans-Tasman bubble that will be considered by both nations’ governments.