Never stopping tears , and immotions brought the Airports alive, the place it is best known for, and this time it was due to the trans - Tasman travel bubble between Australia and New Zealand that allowed the people from both the countries travelling quarantine free after around 400 days !
The flights marked a historic day as the world-first two-nation travel bubble allowed families and friends to re-unite after Pandemic halted global air travel.
Earlier , Prime ministers Scott Morrison and Jacinda Ardern said in a joint statement quarantine-free trans-Tasman travel was a world-leading arrangement that opened up travel while aiming to keep Covid-19 out of the community.
The first flight from Sydney arrived in Auckland just before 12.30pm. It was originally expected to land at 11.20am.
Fifteen flights landed in Auckland from Australia on Monday , with about 400 flights expected to touch down on New Zealand soil by the end of the week.
Air New Zealand expected around 5000 passengers travelling between New Zealand and Australia across 30 flights on Monday.
Chief executive Greg Foran said it would go down in history as one of the most monumental days for Air New Zealand and would be a turning point for the airline.
Qantas has plans to increase flights between the countries to about 200 per week, while Air New Zealand said it had multiplied its flights to 30 on Monday, with its planes flying into New Zealand at 97% occupancy.
New Zealand’s major source of international tourists are Australians and a pre- pandemic data says , about 1.5 million arrivals or 40% of total visitors in 2019 are Australians.
And more than half a million New Zealand-born people live in Australia, just more than 2% of Australia’s population of nearly 26 million.
An year ago, Australia and New Zealand had shut their doors to non-citizens and permanent residents in an effort to keep their Covid-19 infections under control.
However , there is a caution tag to this ! Scenario and travel conditions might change fast , based on assessments of pandemic condition and rate of infections .
Travellers will need to be prepared for possible disruption to travel arrangements at short notice and to follow specific protocols before, during and after their travel.
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