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Qantas has demanded assurances domestic borders will remain open from some point in the near future as the airline complains summer closures have devastated confidence in travel.
A Senate inquiry on Wednesday was told the “severe” flow-on effects of snap border closures had compromised Qantas’s recovery from COVID-19.
Aviation has been devastated by COVID-19, with almost a third of the Australian sector’s employees losing their job since the pandemic began.
And with international borders unlikely to reopen until the end of the year at the earliest, Qantas’s Andrew Parker has demanded certainty over domestic travel now Australia’s COVID-19 vaccine rollout was under way.
“What we are looking for is an assurance that at a point in time, or at a point in the vaccine rollout, further border closures will be ruled out,” he said.
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“Any chance of sustainable domestic recovery is contingent on state and territory borders remaining open.
“We know that people are keen to travel when they have confidence in borders.”
A COVID-19 outbreak on Sydney’s northern beaches in December snapped shut various borders, with arrivals to Perth Airport told upon landing they would be required to undergo quarantine.
Western Australia and Victoria also entered five-day lockdowns in response to earlier minor outbreaks, which Mr Parker claimed had cost the airline around $400m.
A Qantas survey revealed 70 per cent of respondents listed border closures as their biggest barrier to travel, Mr Parker said.
Mr Parker said stories about families being forced to beat sudden border closures had “shattered” confidence.
“Travellers are confused by a patchwork of rapidly changing restrictions and are understandably worried about being locked out of their own home state or intended destination,” he said.
“The flow-on impacts for tourism and the broader economy are obviously severe.”
The inquiry was earlier told that further losses would “cripple” the aviation sector and damage Australia’s broader economic recovery.
The International Transport Workers’ Federation’s Scott McDine said further job losses would prevent the sector from preparing for a return to a pre-COVID economy.
“It’s not the case that we think we could do better; we need to do better,” he said.
“You’ve got to have a trained, skilled and capable workforce that is there ready to respond.”
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