Passengers from China to and from Australia soared, flights in short supply

Airlines operating flights to and from Australia will need to increase capacity to meet growing demand as passengers surge from China to and from Australia after China lifted quarantine requirements for incoming travelers for the first time in three years.

With only one-third of flights operating at pre-pandemic levels, passengers will face a shortage of tickets unless airlines can be lured back to pre-pandemic levels of operation. Airports Association of Australia chief executive James Goodwin said air passenger capacity was not expected to return to pre-coronavirus levels until 2024 or 2025.

He told the media: "There are about six flights a day coming in from China ... We don't expect that to increase dramatically for a few months. The airline industry does take a long time to really plan routes, plan networks, plan people Equipment and so on. It’s not something that can be achieved overnight.”

He expects the first wave of Chinese arrivals to Australia will be mainly family reunions with friends and family before tourist arrivals start to grow significantly.

At present, the federal government requires Chinese passengers to submit a negative certificate for the new coronavirus within 48 hours when boarding a flight to Australia. Jane Halton, head of the Global Epidemic Preparedness Innovation Center, supports this measure.

Halton told the media that we want to know as soon as possible whether there are new, hard-to-handle variants of the virus. We want to put pressure on every country to ensure they are transparent about reporting variants.