Alan Joyce, the CEO of Australia’s Qantas, made some comments on a current affairs show in Australia about flying in the future. Only passengers who have had the Coronavirus vaccine will be permitted on their international flights.
It is an interesting development, and one that will likely be watched by other airlines around the world. Now what exactly did he say about this?
Proof of Coronavirus Vaccine
During the programme “A Current Affair” on Australia’s Channel 9 network, he said the following. “We are looking at changing our terms and conditions, to say for international travellers – we will ask people to have a vaccination before they can get on the aircraft”.
Qantas believe this will be a necessity once a Coronavirus vaccine has been rolled out. You can see his point, it would negate the need for any worry, no masks would be needed when flying and no quarantine on arrival.
Is This The Way Of The Future?
Considering a lot of people are chomping at the bit to get vaccinated, it probably makes sense. Countries around the world are planning to get entire populations sorted out with vaccine, so no doubt everyone will have proof of this.
I’m sure the crazy anti-vaxxers will be fuming at their inability to fly to Australia, but ho hum. The only issue is going to be the roll out schedule of any vaccine. I’m sure I would be quite put out if I had to wait months for a vaccine, and potentially missing flying opportunities.
Overall Thoughts
It’s interesting to see what Qantas are planning and I’ll be curious to see if other airlines follow suit. Not only that, it may well become an immigration requirement that you must be vaccinated before being allowed to enter a country.
All of this is designed to keep populations safe and to get people travelling without fear. At the moment Qantas is not even flying internationally, but this is the plan once they do.
What do you think of this development at Qantas? Thank you for reading and if you have any comments or questions, please leave them below.
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It seems like a very practical idea.
As people pointed out elsewhere, it’s no different to needing a yellow fever vaccination when you go to certain countries in the world, so it shouldn’t be too big a deal.
Are they also gonna mark us (like livestock) for easier check whether we are vaccinated or not???
Well it’s very much like a yellow fever vaccination, so not too unusual!
Something which is much needed. The risk of one unvaxxed traveller causing a spread of the virus is too high.
True, though the incidence of people getting it from flying is exceptionally low, despite the fact people stopped travelling. Any protection is better than none!
I think that even with vaccination, masks will still be necessary for some time thereafter, given that vaccination is currently predicted to be at or less than 95% effective. I would imagine that once worldwide case numbers are sufficiently lowered that it might then be safer to consider not wearing masks.
I think 95% is supposed to be an exceptional level of effectiveness. I believe other vaccinations that children receive when they are young have a lower effectiveness percentage, so I doubt masks will be needed. That is, if it is adopted by a lot of airlines and countries. If not many do, I can see masks for the foreseeable future. They’re fine to wear on flights anyway. Thanks for the comment!