QF warns on quarantine

QANTAS is very hopeful that the rollout of COVID-19 vaccines will enable a relaxation of Australia’s strict quarantine systems, warning it is unlikely to reinstate international routes where inbound passengers are required to isolate.

QF Chief Customer Officer, Stephanie Tully, told delegates at yesterday’s Destination Australia conference in Sydney, that “in a world where there’s vaccinations and there’s rapid testing, we’d like quarantine not to be there”.

“It will be a question for us about whether we fly if it’s still there...we need our customers to be able to not quarantine to get the market we need,” she said.

“It’s the number one reason that people won’t travel.”

Tully cited QF’s domestic experience, where border closures and the imposition of quarantine have repeatedly forced Qantas to cancel routes - which is “tragic and horrible...but I don’t think we’ll get the market to run routes if people have to quarantine”.

She said Qantas was doing a lot of work on vaccine passports to make it as easy as possible for customers to travel, as well as establishing infrastructure to manage the requirements around varying health systems in different countries.

Tully said helping clients navigate the new world of travel was likely to be a key differentiator for the carrier.

“Safety is inherent to the Qantas brand, so our employees, our customers, need to feel safe flying Qantas...if we can guide them through the journey of how they need to travel in the new normal then that will be good for us.”

She also noted strong support among Qantas Frequent Flyers for the carrier’s proposed requirement to only carry vaccinated passengers, with more than 90% in favour of the move.

“Other countries are also starting to indicate that they will not let people in without having had the vaccine - England included...we feel we will be in a reasonable position,” Tully added.

The rollout of vaccines in Australia means the 31 Oct planned resumption of QF’s international network is a “really reasonable” deadline, she said.

“If anything, it’s conservative, it could resume a little bit earlier, and New Zealand should be earlier as well,” she enthused.

The release of the carrier’s schedule had seen a strong response, with high booking levels seen over the last couple of weeks for international travel in Nov, Dec and Jan, Tully added.