CANBERRA, Jul 5 (NNN-AGENCIES) – International airlines claimed, they could be forced to suspend services to Australia, after the government decided to cut arrivals.
Australian Prime Minister, Scott Morrison, announced on Friday that, from Jul 14, the number of international arrivals will be halved, to a little more than 3,000 per week.
The cut was advocated by state and territory leaders, after hotel quarantine breaches led to the outbreaks of COVID-19 across the country, and will significantly inhibit the government’s efforts to repatriate thousands of Australians who remain stuck overseas.
In a major blow for the repatriation programme, the Board of Airline Representatives of Australia (BARA) yesterday said, airlines would have no choice but to cancel flights.
“It is going to be a very difficult situation for many airlines, to maintain their frequency of flights to Australia,” BARA executive director, Barry Abrams, told The Guardian.
“Many will be asking whether or not it makes more sense to suspend their passenger flights or just run cargo flights. I wouldn’t see it as cutting Australia off (but) I would see reduced connectivity and availability of flights to and from Australia.”
More than 34,000 Australians and residents overseas, registered to return home via the hotel quarantine programme, but faced difficulty securing flights, amid high demand.
Abrams said that, the airline industry was not consulted before Friday’s announcement, and had not received any details on how the new cap would work.
“The airlines haven’t even been allocated their cap reductions yet,” he said. “It’s not until those processes start to occur that airlines can start to process this. I know that this does not provide any certainty to all this.”– NNN-AGENCIES
