The re-eruption of Covid in Australian states has slammed state borders shut and hit airlines hard, stifling a domestic aviation recovery, forcing Rex to drastically cut its services and now jeopardising the trans-Tasman quarantine-free travel bubble, as New Zealand considers whether to close travel to Australia entirely.
An announcement from New Zealand on the immediate future of trans-Tasman travel is due at 11.30am AEST today. (See below.)
Domestic aviation in Australia had been slowly but steadily recovering, approaching 2019 levels and providing some relief for airlines after their international traffic was pared back to the bone.
For the month of May 2021 (latest figures available), there were 48,800 aircraft trips in Australia, compared to 13,200 in May 2020 and 58,000 in May 2019.
The budding recovery has descended into chaos once again, as the highly contagious Delta variant of Covid-19 stalks Australia, closing state borders, plunging cities into lockdowns of unknown duration and ruining travel plans. Covid figures are climbing in New South Wales and the coronavirus is stubbornly spreading in Victoria and South Australia.
Rex, which had been doing well in the circumstances, has been forced to slash services to cities and regional communities affected by extensive state border closures and/or lockdowns.
Earlier this week, Australian Frequent Flyer noted that Rex had cancelled all of its scheduled Boeing 737-800 flights until at least the end of this month, as Adelaide joins Sydney and Melbourne in lockdown.
The airline has confirmed that domestic and regional routes on its network in New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Queensland and Tasmania will be either temporarily suspended or greatly reduced “until the end of the State Government imposed border closures and/or lockdowns”.
Affected passengers who booked directly with Rex can go online to Rex’s Covid Refund Portal at: https://www.rex.com.au/Coronavirus/CovidBookingChanges.aspx or to Rex’s website homepage for a link to the portal. The airline said its automated portal would refund all eligible tickets and the money would be returned to the original form of payment within a few days.
“Customers who booked through a travel agent can still log on to our Covid Refund Portal for instructions on how to expedite a refund through the travel agents,” a Rex statement said.
Rex Deputy Chairman John Sharp said the airline’s refund portal gave passengers “the complete peace of mind to make their flight bookings without worry of any snap lockdowns and subsequent loss of money”.
Rex has advised travellers to choose their airline carefully in this period of great uncertainty, “as CHOICE, the Australian Consumers’ Association, recently surveyed more than 4000 travellers and found that few had received refunds, those offered credits or vouchers instead were unlikely to be able to use them, while the handful who succeeded in getting a refund were forced to wait several months to get their money back.”
“Our survey shows many Australians have lost trust in the travel industry,” CHOICE said.
MEANWHILE, New Zealand, which remains free of Covid-19 (almost uniquely in the world), is reportedly now considering closing travel to Australia.
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern will make an announcement on the immediate future of trans-Tasman travel at 1.30pm NZ time today (Friday 23 July 2021).
For those on Australia’s east coast this will happen at 11.30am. In Sydney it will come half an hour after NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian holds her customary 11am press conference, in which she reveals the latest figures in NSW’s ominously spreading Covid epidemic.
New Zealand cabinet ministers convened a special virtual meeting yesterday afternoon to discuss the trans-Tasman bubble, “including a potential pause of the entire arrangement”, Radio New Zealand (RNZ) reported.
The meeting was held virtually as Parliament is in recess, meaning ministers are spread across the country.
New Zealand takes Covid-19 very seriously. The Australian Delta-variant outbreak, triggered by a blunder in which a Sydney limousine driver conveyed infected flight crew from a cargo plane, while being neither vaccinated himself nor wearing a mask, has been observed with concern across the Tasman. As the contagion spread in Australia, New Zealand has paused quarantine-free travel for three Australian states: Victoria, New South Wales and South Australia.
At yesterday’s vaccine update, New Zealand’s Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins told reporters the trans-Tasman arrangements were under “constant review”.
New South Wales recorded 124 new Covid-19 cases yesterday, its worst day yet in the outbreak. Of particular concern is that 48 cases were infectious in the community. NSW health officials are warning the outbreak will get worse.
Victoria has recorded 26 new local cases, but only two were infectious in the community. South Australia has also reported two new cases. Queensland has now closed its border to people coming from NSW.
Written by Peter Needham
