Qantas boss Alan Joyce has slammed the Queensland Premier’s decision to ban Sydney residents from entering the sunshine state when the border with NSW reopens at 1am next Tuesday.
Mr Joyce said Anastasia Palaszczuk’s decision would ground hundreds of possible flights and leave hundreds more Qantas staff without work.
“Frankly, this is ridiculous,” Mr Joyce said in a statement today.
“Sydney is the biggest city in Australian and it probably has the best track record globally of managing a virus that is clearly going to be with us for a very long time.
“Keeping the doors bolted to places that you can’t reasonably call hotspots makes no sense from a health perspective and it’s doing a lot of social and economic damage as well.”
He branded the decision as irrational and compared it to the “far more rational” border arrangements of Tasmania, Northern Territory and South Australia.
“Queensland may find that by the time it does open up to Sydney, people may have made other plans.”
Qantas and Jetstay had been due to schedule more than 1,000 flights from Sydney to Queensland in November – those plans are now on ice.
NSW has only suffered eight local cases in the past week, with just six in the past three days.
Ms Palasczcuk’s decision to ban Sydneysiders are reportedly infuriated Queensland tourism operators who are desperate for a seasonal influx of visitors.
The Premier pushed back the opening of the border from Sunday to next Tuesday, today announcing that Sydney’s 32 local government areas would not be included in those being welcomed back to the state.
