DESPITE efforts to increase flight and quarantine capacity, a Senate hearing has been told that Australia will not be able to repatriate all of the tens of thousands of its citizens who remain stranded overseas in time for Christmas.
The number of people trying to return home to Australia has nearly doubled in the last three months, according to media reports, with approximately 37,000 awaiting flights home.
The Senate’s COVID-19 Committee heard the Federal Government anticipates close to 2,400 Australians will arrive home before the end of year aboard government-assisted repatriation flights, with approximately 29,000 seats to be made available on commercial flights through to Jan.
However, The Board of Airline Representatives of Australia (BARA) believes that with domestic border restrictions easing, it represents an opportunity to boost the government’s projected repatriation numbers, and could go a long way to reducing the queue of Australians who remain stranded overseas.
“BARA understands that allocating this freed-up capacity to international flights could permit over 2,000 additional international arrivals each week, making a large difference to the Australians still overseas who currently do not have any prospects of returning home before the year’s end,” argued the group’s Executive Director Barry Abrams.
“The decision as to whether more Australians can return home prior to 31 Dec now ultimately rests with the individual state governments, who must decide if international arrivals can use the freed-up domestic quarantine capacity.”
India, Britain, The Philippines, Thailand and South Africa are the top five countries with Australians registered as wanting to come home, with close to 426,000 Australians recorded as arriving home since mid-Mar.
Meanwhile there has been a 1.3% positive COVID-19 testing rate for those in hotel quarantine.
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Source: traveldaily