Friday 15 January 2021

Emirates Praised For Suspending Australian Flights After New Arrival Caps Introduced

Last week international flight caps in three Australian states were scissored in half until February the 15th. This came in response to the threat of a new highly transmissible strain of COVID-19 from the United Kingdom.

New South Wales, Queensland and Western Australia are the three states in which arrival caps have been reduced.

"Passengers on all incoming international flights will also need to be tested for the new strain before boarding flights, under new protocols agreed to by National Cabinet, as well as a mandatory 14-day quarantine upon arrival," the ABC reports.

"Under the new rules, New South Wales will move to a weekly cap of about 1,500 people, Western Australia and Queensland 500... Victoria will not change as they are already operating at a lower capacity after their 2020 outbreak and South Australia will also not change its caps," (ABC).

After these cuts were made, Emirates last Friday announced it would be suspending flights to and from Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane indefinitely. As a result, hundreds of Australians are now stranded overseas. As the Sydney Morning Herald reports, for some, this is the fourth time their flight home has been cancelled.

"Devastation doesn't even begin to describe it."

Emirates, "only flies Airbus A380s and Boeing 777s – two of the largest modern planes in the industry," the Sydney Morning Herald also reports.

Emirates cited "operational reasons" (and said it "regrets any inconvenience caused") when asked by the ABC why the flights had been suspended. Now, Emirates' only Australian flight route will be the Perth-Dubai corridor.

RELATED: Returning Australians Forced To Fly Home In Business Class

"Emirates remains committed to Australia and continues to operate twice-weekly flights to/from Perth," a statement from the airline, provided to the ABC, reads.

"Affected customers should contact their travel agent or Emirates contact centre for rebooking options."

Some see opportunity amid the devastation, however. Frequent flyer, points hacker and founder of Flight Hacks, Immanuel Debeer took to Instagram early on Saturday morning to praise the airline, arguing that – if it inspires a broader boycott – Emirates' decision could ultimately get more stranded Australians home quicker.

"Emirates is suspending flights!" Debeer wrote on his Instagram story. "I hope all other airlines follow suit and force the government to change its ridiculous arrivals cap for Australians trying to come home."

"To give you an idea, only 73 people per day are allowed into Western Australia from overseas. We currently have three airlines flying passengers. So that means around 24 people per flight depending on the schedule."

On Twitter, in the comments beneath the Sydney Morning Herald's article announcing the news, one user wrote: "and soon all that may be flying are freighters."

As well as raising questions it could influence other airlines to suspend their Australian flight routes too, Emirates decision to suspend these vital Australian flight routes will also, the Sydney Morning Herald reports, "put fresh pressure on the federal government to arrange special repatriation flights in partnership with Qantas."

Big questions are also being asked over entertainers and sportspeople being allowed to fly in, while thousands of Australians remain stuck overseas. Various perspectives on the matter rolled in on Twitter.

Debeer and many others who make a living in the travel sphere (from Qantas CEO Alan Joyce to your local business class blogger) have been vocal advocates of opening up borders and facilitating travel as soon as is safely possible to do so.

RELATED: 'Infuriating' Instagram Video Has Americans Up In Arms About Life In Australia

Most economists agree. The contention, then, is over how "as soon as safely possible" is defined – a topic which looks to be debated for at least the next year or two, depending on how the global situation regarding COVID-19 vaccines, among other things, unfurls.

Read Next

↬ READ FULL STORY

Subscribe to the DMARGE newsletter

Follow DMARGE on Instagram

Follow DMARGE on Facebook

 

The post Emirates Praised For Suspending Australian Flights After New Arrival Caps Introduced appeared first on DMARGE.



from DMARGE https://ift.tt/35NqMV1

0 comments:

Post a Comment

If Bullets Don’t Kill The Next James Bond, Political Correctness Will

No Time to Die , the hotly-anticipated 25th  James Bond  film and  Daniel Craig’s  last stint as the famous fictional spy, is truly an end ...