The head of Australian airline company Qantas has said that those who want to fly with them will need to provide proof that they’ve been injected with the coronavirus vaccine before boarding one of their planes when it becomes available to the world.
CEO Alan Joyce says that proof of vaccination may be a general requirement of many airlines as the world returns back to normal.
He has previously said that flights will not resume until a vaccine becomes widely available, but now went beyond to say that it will be mandatory for people who wish to fly.
In a Monday interview with A Current Affair, Joyce said:
“We are looking at changing our terms and conditions to say that, for international travellers, we will ask people to have a vaccination before they get on the aircraft.
Whether you need that domestically, we will have to see with COVID-19 and the market but certainly, for international visitors coming out [of Australia] and people leaving the country we think that’s a necessity.”
NEW: Qantas plans to insist that passengers on international flights have been vaccinated against #coronavirus before boarding its planes, once any jab is rolled out across the world
CEO Alan Joyce said he thinks a vaccine will become "a necessity" for international travel
— Darren McCaffrey (@DarrenEuronews) November 23, 2020
And while some people who are against the vaccine might think they’ll just choose another airline, the CEO believes that this rule will be applied by every airline company.
“I think that’s going to be a common thing talking to my colleagues in other airlines around the globe,” he added.
Should the vaccine be a success, Joyce has said that he expects international travel to get back to normal by the end of next year, but added that the growing number of infections around the world would make it difficult.
“Unfortunately with the levels of the virus in the United States and in Europe, we’re not going to see operations to those destinations in any real strength until we see a vaccine being rolled out, which is likely towards the end of 2021,” he explained.
Australian airline Qantas says international travelers will have to be vaccinated against COVID-19 to board a flight pic.twitter.com/x6B4ti21NU via @BNODesk pic.twitter.com/ST4HmkGlQq
— coronavirus.dk (@CoronavirusDk) November 23, 2020
Nevertheless, domestic flights have now resumed between the cities of Sydney and Melbourne as well as Victoria and New South Wales.
Projections are that Qantas will be able to operate at 60% by Christmas.
The rest of the world will have to wait a bit longer.
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