Victoria-NSW border closure: airlines to slash Sydney-Melbourne flights across July – The Guardian

Qantas and Jetstar will significantly reduce flights between Sydney and Melbourne, both ways, for the rest of July as the decision to close its border with Victoria has ripple-on effects across the aviation industry.
International flights have also been disrupted by the federal government imposing a cap on international arrivals at Sydney airport. As of Saturday, only 450 passengers a day will be allowed to arrive, with a maximum of 50 passengers a flight. International flights have already been banned from landing in Melbourne.
On Tuesday, Qantas said that it would slash the number of flights to and from Melbourne for the rest of the month. Qantas and Jetstar will continue to operate limited flights for essential travel only.
The airline said the Sydney to Melbourne route was the most affected, but it still expects to operate multiple flights per day.
Other routes, such as Melbourne to Byron Bay, will also be affected.
Madeleine Morris (@Mad_Morris)And this is the departures board for Qantas at #Melbourne airport today. There are normally flights every 15 minutes between Mel-Syd. Its one of the busiest routes in the world pic.twitter.com/kwLvWt4FdF
July 6, 2020
The temporary border closure between NSW and Victoria will come into effect at 12.01am on Wednesday, with exemptions for work and for access to essential health services.
However, a number of international airlines said the NSW-Victoria border closure would not yet affect routes.
United Airlines and Air New Zealand, two of the airlines to still run regular international routes to Australia, said they had no plans to alter services.
At this stage we have not reduced the number of services into and out of Sydney or rerouted any Sydney-bound flights, an Air New Zealand spokeswoman said.
Both airlines said they did not currently run services to other capital cities, such as Brisbane or Adelaide, and did not have plans to do so.
Meanwhile, other states have also called on the federal government to impose similar international arrival caps on other capital cities.
Queenslands premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk, said on Tuesday: We need to minimise the amount of international flights coming into Australia.
Western Australias premier, Mark McGowan, said he wanted only one international flight arriving in Perth every three days. We need to slow down the flow so we can manage it appropriately.

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