Australia and New Zealand welcome the first passengers in the southern travel bubble

Whilst travel bubbles remain a bureaucratic nightmare for most SE Asian countries, Australia and New Zealand have opened their first green lanes since April last year, nearly 400 days. For the two countries it allows family and friends to re-unite. For New Zealand it opens the gates for its largest chunk of tourists. In 2019 some 1.5 million tourists visited New Zealand from Australia.

The first flights landed this morning taking advantage of the quarantine-free travel bubble between the 2 countries.

The arrangement means that passengers can fly across the Tasman Sea without going through the mandatory Covid quarantine when they arrive at either end of their journey.

The New Zealand PM Jacinda Ardern hailed the success of the 2 countries in coming to grips with Covid-19 and somewhat containing the spread of the virus, allowing the travel corridor to open today.

Australia is home to hundreds of thousands of New Zealand expats who regularly shuffled across the Tasman Sea on the 3 hour flights. Both Air New Zealand and Qantas were scheduling flights for the tentative re-opening to travel.

Meanwhile, Australia’s Deputy PM Michael McCormack says the Oz government remains in active discussions with Singapore as it looks to create another quarantine-free travel bubble.