What worked in 2019 may not work in 2021 says Qantas Group boss

November 1st 2020

Print Friendly

With nearly all of its critical international flying grounded, Qantas Group CEO, Alan Joyce, is clearly frustrated with the haphazard approach of the country’s various states to closing their borders between each other. Read More » In a speech at press time, Joyce praised the early efforts of the nation’s leaders in fighting the pandemic.

“Unfortunately, the solidarity of the national cabinet did not last. Nowhere is this more evident than the Rubik Cube approach to state borders,” Joyce said in his speech to the country’s business leaders. “At first, decisions around borders were made on the basis of the health risk and that’s fair enough.

“Now they seem to be driven by politics and populism. Before its recent election, the Northern Territory government said its borders would be closed for 18 months. After the election, they opened in a matter of weeks.

“Queensland has dragged its heels on opening its borders to other states, but the day before its election it announced they would remain closed to Greater Sydney because of four cases. Four! On a day of zero cases of community transmission, the premier went further and said the closure would remain in place until December. As we said at the time, this is ridiculous. Australia will be living with this virus for a long time and Sydney is probably a world leader in managing it.”

The Business Council of Australia estimated the country is losing $319 million a day because of closed borders. “This inertia is destroying jobs and creating a mountain of red tape for business,” Joyce said.

Qantas had been forced to put on hold plans to add more than 1,000 flights between Sydney and Queensland for the month of November, which would cost the Queensland economy hundreds of millions of dollars a week, Joyce said.

His speech was delivered as it was announced Qantas and Jetstar would operate thousands of flights to and from Melbourne and regional Victoria over the southern hemisphere summer following the New South Wales Government’s decision to open its border to Victoria. Western Australia is opening its borders later this month, though not to residents of Greater Sydney, the country’s biggest city.

Joyce said despite the virus issues, some green shoots were appearing in the industry. “We remain hopeful that between Qantas and Jetstar we will be back to 50% of our pre-COVID domestic flying by Christmas,” he said. “Some of our key markets in Europe and the United States are likely to remain closed for some time, probably until an effective vaccine arrives.

“But we have a one-way bubble with New Zealand and the [Australian] government is talking about bubbles with some parts of Asia and the Pacific. We can pivot quickly if that happens.”