Canberra requests bubble

CANBERRA Airport Managing Director Stephen Byron has written to the Premiers of Queensland and South Australia to request a travel bubble be created between the ACT and each state.

The ACT has been free of any known COVID-19 cases for close to a fortnight, leading Byron to formally ask for a special exemption for travel, despite each state publicly declining to ease border restrictions to the rest of Australia.

The airport’s proposal would effectively sanction residents of the ACT to travel to both states without a need for any quarantine requirements upon arrival, but they would need to apply for a special permit first.

In a letter to South Australian Premier Steven Marshall obtained by ABC News, Canberra Airport chief Stephen Byron made the case for a mutual economic benefit between the ACT and South Australia if a travel bubble were to be established.

“There is much demand from business between our two cities and states, and there is also significant demand from the desire to visit friends and relatives between our two regions,” Byron said.

“Further, this incremental - and safe - opening up of access to South Australia for tourism will support jobs in your state, from Adelaide into the wine regions and beyond,” he added.

Neither Premier has made any public response to the request by the time of press.

If agreed to, the states could potentially give the proposal the green light within the next couple of weeks.