Sanitiser puts dogs on the sidelines

BIOSECURITY staff made an unexpected discovery when Hobart Airport sniffer dogs work wasn’t up to scratch.

Biosecurity Tasmania director Rae Burrows said the dogs can no longer work in the airlock area because of the use of hand sanitisers.

“Our dogs actually have moved their operations from that area after we discovered our dogs weren’t operating as efficiently as they used to and that was because of the sanitiser ( affecting their smell),” Ms Burrows said.

She said this became apparent about two weeks into heightened coronavirus protocols.

In terms of other airport operations, Ms Burrows said the configuration is slightly different. But the general principles are the same.

One challenge is ensuring

people are moved through as quickly as possibly.

“We don’t want to spoil people’s experience … and we also can’t put our biosecurity at risk,” Ms Burrows said.

“We have been preparing for this ( reopening) for a long time. Together as a group with police and airport staff we have a streamlined process – today is the first step.”

Hobart Airport chief operating officer Matt Cocker said throughout October Hobart Airport was operating around 46 scheduled flights in and out ( two- way), a mix of interstate and intrastate services.

“November is seeing a progressive increase in services based on the state government easing of border restrictions to safe states,” he said.

November currently has 80 scheduled flights per week, which is 15- 20 per cent of historical capacity of services for the same time, and those numbers are progressively building based on market demand and airlines increasing services.

The current schedule projections for December would see airlines operating around 200 flights in and out per week, between 40- 45 per cent of historical capacity.