Australia Might Resume International Travel on December 18

Australia is not open for tourism, only essential travel is allowed. All arrivals need to present a negative PCR test at check-in and agree to a 14-day quarantine.

Australian borders remain closed for most countries. The trans-Tasman travel bubble between Australia and New Zealand has been halted until further notice.

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Disclaimer: Travel restrictions and governmental regulations can change rapidly and the information below might be outdated within a few hours. Therefore, double-check all information with your embassy or on official websites. Traveling Lifestyle does not take any responsibility for your decision to travel.

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Australia Reopening Borders – Latest Updates

September 7 – Australia might resume international travel on December 18

Australia has extended its “biosecurity emergency period” through December 17. This means that international travel will remain banned at least until that date.

However, Qantas airlines has scheduled flights to Singapore, London, Los Angeles and Vancouver on 18 December and more for the following week. 

Although Qantas’ CEO has done this before, this time he seems to have support from the government. 

“They [the Australian Government] agree with our broad assumptions, and agree that our plan is reasonable.”

Source: Executive Travel News

August 25 – Australia’s panel supports reopening plans regardless of COVID figures

The Melbourne-based Doherty Institute suggested a change on the current zero-cases strategy, to limiting the number of hospitalizations and deaths. This way, Australia could reopen when 80% of its population is fully vaccinated.

“It doesn’t matter whether it’s 30 cases or 800 cases, the conclusions are the same, and that’s what the Doherty Institute said… we can do this safely and we do need to do it,” said Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Tuesday.

As of today, only 30% of Australia’s adult population has been fully vaccinated. 

Source: Reuters

July 29 – Australia-New Zealand travel bubble paused at least until October, 2021

The Trans-Tasman travel agreement between Australia and New Zealand has been shut down for 8 weeks due to a spike in coronavirus cases in Sydney.

 “There are now multiple outbreaks, and in differing stages of containment, that have forced three states into lockdown. The health risk to New Zealanders from these cases is increasing,” told reporters Prime Minister Jacinta Ardern.

Sydney reported 239 new cases in the last hours making it the worst outbreak seen in months. The state’s premier, Gladys Berejiklian, announced the enforcement of stricter measures in eight areas “of concern.” 

Source: The Guardian

When will Australia reopen borders for tourism?

Unfortunately, it does not appear that Australia will be reopening its international borders for tourism anytime in the near future, as Prime Minister Scott Morrison and other government officials have announced multiple times. 

COVID situation in Australia

As of September 7, the island nation has had 64,641 cases of COVID-19 – a very small number compared to other countries of its size – and 1,052 people have died of the disease in the country.

Australia reopening tourism: Updates archives

August 12 – Australia’s expats to seek permission to travel abroad from August 12

Australia heavily tightened its COVID curbs from today, following a spike in coronavirus cases in Sydney and Canberra.

Effective August 12, all people who “ordinarily reside in another country”, meaning, if they “spent more time outside Australia than inside in the last 12 to 24 months” will need to demonstrate they have compelling reasons to leave the country. 

Australia is seeing a worrisome epidemiology situation to its standards. Also today, the government called extra military forces to ensure compliance with lockdown measures after its capital Canberra reported its first locally transmitted case with no links to other patients. 

“We are making sure that we do not leave any stone unturned in relation to extra (military) resources,” New South Wales state Premier Gladys Berejiklian said at a media conference in Sydney.

Source: ITV News

July 10 – Australia to reopen international borders with a new four-phase plan

Different industries have welcomed the four-phase plan released by the government following the National Cabinet meeting on July 2 aimed at reopening international borders.

In phase 1 (vaccine pilot), Australia will continue to minimize community transmission. 

In phase 2 (post-vaccination), students and business visitors will be allowed in.

In phase 3 (consolidation), there would be no lockdowns and no limits on returning vaccinated travelers.

In phase 4 (final), life will return to “almost” normal but unvaccinated travelers will still need to do pre- and post-flight testing.

The date where these phases are supposed to happen has not been released yet. However, Prime Minister Scott Morrison expects that the limited number of returning travelers (phase 3), should be in place at least until the beginning of 2022. 

(Source: Australian Government)

June 23 – Australia planning to bring back international students with a new “traffic light” entry system

Australia could trial a pilot program that would bring back international students from a limited number of countries over the months to come.

The new “green light, red light” system would allow vaccinated people “who pose no health risk” to come back to the country after almost a year and a half of closure. (Source: India Today)

The proposal came after Prime Minister Morrison told The Weekend Australian the government will spend the next six months monitoring the spread of new highly-contagious variants, and the effectiveness of vaccines before reopening their international borders. 

(Source: Australian Aviation).

June 8 – Australia might reopen a travel bubble with the U.K., and the U.S. according to Qantas CEO

Trade and Tourism Minister Dan Tehan has officially announced the federal governments of Australia and New Zealand are working on expanding the existing quarantine-free travel bubble to include at least 5 island countries in the Pacific.

For its part, Qantas CEO Alan Joyce said last week that the reasonable next step would be to put the U.S. and U.K. next on the travel bubble agenda. 

Minister Tehan immediately backed him up by telling reporters that “Alan has definitely got the right idea”. “We want to build on the success of our travel bubble with New Zealand. Six weeks now, we have had a two-way travel bubble and it is working very well,” 

However “[We] have got to remember at the moment there are over 3,000 active cases in the U.K. and the U.S. each day, so still a long way to go there for them in dealing with the virus and obviously, once they can get on top of that, we can start looking at these things,” said Tehan.

(Source: 7News)

May 11 – Australia is considering a three-principle roadmap to reopen

As stated by Health Minister Greg Hunt, Australia is considering reopening the country when 3 principles are met. 

Thus, the country will reopen when/if,

• First, the travel bubbles work well as the one stabilized with New Zealand. Then the “capacity can be expanded to the Pacific, possibly Singapore or possibly to other countries.”

• Second, there is a massive vaccination program.

• Third, after assessing the progressive capacity, “based on medical advice for those that have been vaccinated to have easier passage out and easier passage in.”

According to early looks at the 2021 federal budget, “the assumption is that international borders would reopen in 2022”, said an Australian spokesperson.

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