QANTAS: Puts passengers at risk of COVID-19. Scraps vaccination requirement

Qantas will no longer require international passengers to be vaccinated against COVID-19 from Tuesday, 19 July 2022. This means that you could be travelling with a non-vaccinated passenger sitting next to you, putting you and them at risk of catching the virus.

This applies whether you are travelling from or to a country that requires passengers to be vaccinated to enter or transit through their airports. It is now vital that passengers check what the requirements are for entry or transit through a country, irrespective of Qantas requirements – or lack of them.

Qantas was the first airline in the world to introduce a ‘no jab, no fly’ rule announced way back in December 2020 once a vaccine was available. Mask wearing on Qantas flights is still mandatory – for now.

The new declaration is in line with the Australian government’s change in policy which now allows all overseas passengers entry with or without vaccination.

2PAXfly Takeout

The aviation industry has a difficult road ahead when it comes to sustainability. It’s going to require a relative revolution in technology, with ‘electric planes’ or hydrogen planes, or some form of jet engine that doesn’t require a carbon based fuel. And that is going to require the development of an alternative to jet engines probably.

It’s a big ask. It will take time to develop.

This move to home grown and manufactured SAF is a first step – maybe even a baby step in a very long road of innovation. In the long run, US$200 million won’t even touch the sides.

Personally, I think this is a bad decision, especially since we are about to face a wave of the even more infectious BA.4 and BA.5 variants of omicron.

Even if the mandated vaccination merely works as a wake-up call to passengers, it is valuable. To abandon the vaccine mandate for arriving passengers is to invite an increase in infection rates.

With COVID-19 now the major cause of death in Australia – with rates of around 300 per week, that’s 15,000 per year, this is not the time to be relaxing mandates.