Sydney airport sees borders opening 'city by city, country by country'

Australia’s major gateway airport expects to wage a city-by-city, country-by-country campaign to restore international travel as it strives to return to pre-COVID glory days. Sydney Airport chief executive Geoff Culbert told the airport’s annual meeting Friday that there was still no crystal ball that could predict when domestic or international travel would restart. But the Sydney Airport boss  said the airport was working constructively with the government and other industry stakeholders to restore domestic and trans-Tasman with the aim of using the experience to create a template for the eventual full restoration of international travel. READ: AirNZ, US lawmakers spearhead renewed biofuel push. “Our view is that the Trans-Tasman bubble must act as a template for how we begin connecting city by city, country by country, back to our worldwide network of 48 international airlines and 110 destinations,’’ he said. “Tourism Australia statistics show that international travelers spent close to $50bn in Australia last year. “So long as international borders remain shut it costs the tourism industry, and the economy, close to $1 billion dollars a week.” Culbert — who chairs the Business Council of Australia’s tourism, transport freight and logistics taskforce and has closely involved in the trans-Tasman bubble project —noted international travel was critical to the airport as it accounted to 70 percent of its passenger-generated revenues. “So, in that regard our interests are clearly aligned to the broader economic interests of the country,’’ he said. “We need to create a safe and sustainable pathway to the full restoration of both domestic and international travel and that’s something we are working hard on at the moment.” The comments come after Qantas put back the date at which it expects a significant return to International travel from October to December. This followed Treasury estimates that international borders may not re-open until the middle of 2022. The Australian government has not given timeline for re-opening international borders with Prime Minister Scott Morrison saying a first step was allowing vaccinated Australians to travel domestically before enabling them to travel to safe countries. The issue was also complicated this week by a Newspoll showing most Australians supported the border closures.