COVID-19: Sydney limits international arrivals to 450 per day, and 50 per flight

The Australian government at the request of the New South Wales state government has limited international arrivals into Sydney Airport to 450 passengers per day until at least 17 July. In addition, flights arriving in Australia at Sydney Airport are limited to 50 passengers per flight. That is causing the airlines who are still flying into Sydney to quickly re-organise their passengers.

Melbourne not accepting international arrivals

Because Melbourne is suffering from a blow-out of COVID-19 cases, the Victorian Government has asked for a halt to international arrivals into Melbourne Airport for a fortnight. Melbourne has recently recording upwards of a 100 new COVID-19 cases per day, and as a consequence has locked down a number of postcodes as well as 3,000 people in 9 multi-story public housing blocks.

The closure of Melbourne to international arrivals, means that Sydney has had to take up the slack.

International arrivals, Sydney

Australian based airlines Virgin Australia and Qantas have suspended all international flights, but the following carriers (based on the next few days) are still flying into Sydney:

• Air Calin
• Air New Zealand
• All Nippon Airways
• Cathay Pacific
• China Eastern Airlines
• China Southern
• Delta Airlines
• Emirates
• Etihad Airways
• Garuda Indonesia
• Malaysia Airlines
• Qatar Airways
• Singapore Airlines
• United Airlines
• Vietnam Airlines
• Xiamen Airlines

So, those airlines are going to have to rapidly sort out their passenger loads so that only 50 arrive per flight, with a maximum of 9 flights arriving per day to keep total passenger arrivals to 450 per day.

Check with your airline

If you are booked on an international flight scheduled to arrive in Sydney or Melbourne up to and including 14 July, then you better check with your airline if your flight is still departing as scheduled. If you are booked to Melbourne, you might find that is no longer your destination!

2PAXfly Takeout

This is another timely reminder to wear your seatbelt when seated. Holding you close to your seat will protect you from the sort of injuries sustained on this flight, when unsecured passengers flew to the ceiling of the aircraft, and then came crashing down once the ‘drop’ ceased.

The hope will be that this is an anomaly – a ‘freak accident’ in casual parlance. If it is a systemic error either mechanical or electronic, then this is a larger concern for the airlines that fly Boeing Dreamliner 787 aircraft. Let’s hope it isn’t. If it is, it will pile on the woes to Boeing’s existing stack.

These new restrictions on passenger arrivals are going to make life interesting as soon as this Wednesday when 11 flights are scheduled to arrive in Sydney!

On the other hand, some flights might get cancelled, be cargo only, or have less than 50 passengers anyway, I suppose.