The boss of Virgin Australia has called for Australia’s borders to open, even if people may die
Virgin Australia CEO Jayne Hrdlicka has issued a plea to the Australian Government. In the letter, she urged them to reopen international borders. She said, ‘it’s now or never.’
Hrdlicka says Australia will fall behind the rest of the world if the borders stay shut. She added that this means many people will end up getting sick due to not being immune to new viruses.
The Australia federal government ordered international borders closed on 9pm on March 20, 2020.
The Government says they have no plans to reopen them until at least 2022.
Other Australian airlines are also suffering
Border closures also forced Australia’s biggest airline, Qantas, to push back international travel dates from October to late December 2021.
In a statement, Qantas said the Australian Federal Government has “revised its anticipated timeline for the completion of Australia’s vaccine rollout to end-2021 and its timeline for significantly reopening our international borders to mid-2022.”
In light of these two dates, the Qantas Group will adjust its planned international flights from end-October 2021 to late December 2021.
“We remain optimistic that additional bubbles will open once Australia’s vaccine rollout is complete to countries who, by then, are in a similar position”
