COVID-19: International borders could open state-by-state

As you may have noted if you are following the pandemic political commentary in Australia, some States with low infection rates, and low vaccination rates are ‘nah-nah-ing’ Scovid our Prime Minister about border openings.

Queensland and Western Australia – maverick states

Essentially, Queensland and Western Australia are saying – why would we want to open our borders to virus-infected states just so our residents can travel overseas, and our tourist industries can receive international tourists?

Scovid’s (Scott Morrison) response is that if you don’t – we will open the other states international borders when they reach 70% or 80% 2^nd dose vaccination of adults anyway.

The Prime Minister’s change of tune is the result of NSW Liberal MP’s (Jason Falinski, Dave Sharma and Trent Zimmerman) lobbying for NSW to not have to wait for other states to reach the same level before it opens international borders.

Qantas happy

Qantas Chief, Alan Joyce couldn’t be happier. Anything to get domestic and international flying back on board as soon as possible is his understandable mantra. The 3rd week of December looks like the time, but forget holiday destinations like Bali/Indonesia, Phuket/Thailand for the moment though – they will have to wait until April 2022.

Most likely destinations for the December Qantas restart are Japan, Britain and the USA.

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.

While I desperately wish things to get back to normal and want to live in a country of Zero daily cases, that no longer seems realistic. I’m eager to let my passport out for some exercise, at the soonest opportunity. I might prefer to start with a closer destination, like New Zealand, but would love to get on some long-haul planes and head to Europe or the Americas.

The airline does not expect to fly to destinations like Indonesia and Thailand until next April when vaccination rates are higher.