International flights to Melbourne could resume next week

Victoria’s hotel quarantine workers have been told to prepare for international arrivals to resume as soon as next Saturday, a month after flights were paused during February’s “circuit-breaker” lockdown.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison, who said other states were carrying an unfair burden because of Victoria’s halt on flights, said on Friday he expected the Andrews government would “soon” announce a date when approximately 10,000 stranded Victorians could start to return.

Flights have been paused since February 14.Credit:Wayne Taylor

Three hotel quarantine sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because their company policies do not permit them to speak publicly, said they had been informed that flights would resume imminently.

Two sources at Healthcare Australia, the under-fire company that provides medical services at nine quarantine hotels, said staff had been told flights would probably resume on March 13.

Internal correspondence from senior Healthcare Australia staff, seen by The Age, confirms operational changes are being made to accommodate flights. Another senior hotel quarantine source said Health Department officials had been informing groups involved in the quarantine scheme that arrivals would probably begin within weeks.

Passenger flights have not arrived in Melbourne since February 14 when the Holiday Inn cluster that grew to almost 25 cases prompted a short lockdown.

Victoria had been preparing to increase its weekly intake by 200 to about 1300 but on February 12, when his government halted international flights, Premier Daniel Andrews said that when they resumed there could be a reduction in the number of returnees until COVID-19 vaccines were widely administered. He also questioned whether people should be allowed into the state for anything other than compassionate reasons.

The Premier said on Thursday he was “not in a position to confirm when flights will begin arriving again in Melbourne”. A government spokeswoman said on Friday a decision had not been made. No government agencies have provided official advice to staff of an imminent resumption of flights.

“We’ve asked our medical experts to look at what the impacts of variants of concern are on the risk profile in our hotels. When … they can satisfy me that we can have a system where we have the lowest possible risk, then flights will start,” Mr Andrews said on Thursday.

“I know that’s inconvenient for people, but the inconvenience … pales in significance when you think about wildly infectious, very easily transmitted virus, a changing virus, a changing challenge, and the prospect of further lockdowns.”

The government is planning to build a quarantine facility outside the city that would reduce the risk of COVID-19 seeping into metropolitan communities. This could include a site at Avalon Airport that would probably take months to build.

The government will not wait until it has built a regional facility to begin accepting flights. Rather, it is likely to again use CBD hotels and enforce stricter infection control protocols, including on the types of masks worn in hotels, and likely accept fewer arrivals to mitigate risk.

NSW is accepting more than 3000 travellers a week and Western Australia and Queensland are both taking more than 1000. NSW has received more than 130,000 travellers since hotel quarantine began last March compared with 36,000 in Victoria, where flights were halted between July and December during the second wave of COVID-19 infections caused by virus leaks from hotels.

Asked if Victoria’s pause on arrivals meant other states were unfairly picking up slack, the Prime Minister replied “yes”.

“The second-highest number of Australians on [the list of Australians unable to return] are from Victoria – over 10,000 Victorians are wanting to come home,” he said.

“I’m sure they would welcome their home state receiving those flights as soon as possible.

“I’m looking forward soon to a decision from the Victorian government, once they’re in a position to advise us of when they’ll be in a position to take flights again.”

The Prime Minister said Jane Halton, a former federal Health Department secretary, had recently inspected Victoria’s hotel program and gave a “positive” report.

The Howard Springs quarantine facility in the Northern Territory will expand to take 2000 returned Australians, up from 850. The increase will take place by May, Mr Morrison said.

“That is an important addition to the capacity of those quarantine facilities, to receive those return chartered flights that Australia has been putting in place for many, many months,” he said.

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