Australia has today, Monday, fully opened its external border to travellers carrying all covid-19-related documents, including a vaccination certificate and a negative test.
More than 50 international flights are scheduled to arrive in the country during the day, including 27 to Sydney, the country's largest city, while the tourism and hospitality sectors are looking forward to recovery after being hammered by coronavirus restrictions.
«It is a very exciting day, a day I have been looking forward to for a long time, since the day I first closed the border at the very beginning of the pandemic,» the Prime Minister said, Scott Morrison to journalists from the island of Tasmania, which is particularly dependent on tourism.
People who had been away from loved ones for months were reunited with their loved ones, like Cindy Moss who travelled from Kentucky, USA to see her daughter. «I just haven't seen her in so long and it was so important that I was able to come here. I'm so excited,» she said excitedly after hugging her daughter.
For his part, Qantas pilot Paul Grant said he was happy to «welcome passengers back on board».
The first flight
A Qantas flight from Los Angeles was the first to land in Sydney, followed by aircraft from Tokyo, Vancouver and Singapore.
«We've all been waiting a long time (for this moment),» said Alan Joyce, general manager of Qantas Airlines.
Tourism is one of the country's largest industries, valued at over A$60 billion and employing around 5% of the country's workforce. But the industry has been hit hard since the country closed its border in March 2020.
The country, which was once a «champion» of the zero Covid outbreak strategy, has since late last year been moving away from the policy of controls that made it almost a ‘fortress’ and constant lockdowns and began learning to live with the virus after achieving higher levels of vaccination.
The phrase «Welcome back!» painted next to the runways welcomed passengers flying to Sydney while people in kangaroo costumes greeted travellers and a DJ played music from a van.
“It's a party here”
«It's a party here, there's music playing, people are smiling, soon I'm sure they'll be dancing,» Tourism Minister Dan Teehan told the ABC network from Sydney airport while offering travellers jars of Vegemite, a well-known Australian spread, and stuffed koalas as gifts.
Teehan said he hoped for a «very strong» recovery in the tourism market, with Qantas expected to carry over 14,000 passengers to Australia this week. Virgin Australia reported positive trends in domestic bookings and continues to assess demand for international flights.
However, all train services in Sydney had been cancelled today following a wage dispute between the workers' union and the state government, affecting the positive mood created by the return of overseas travellers.
As the country's borders are fully reopened, the outbreak of Omicron variant in Australia appears to have already passed its peak with hospital admissions falling steadily over the past three weeks.
The majority of the total 2.7 million confirmed cases in Australia have been detected since Omicron emerged in late November. A total of 4,929 people have lost their lives.
As of this morning (local time), just over 17,000 new cases and 17 deaths had been recorded, with figures from the Northern Territory expected to be released later.
