Editorial: Cruise ships locked out of transtasman bubble
14 May, 2021 05:00 PM
4 minutes to read
The Diamond Princess cruise ship at Yokohama, Japan, in February 2020. Photo / AP file
NZ Herald
EDITORIAL
As tourists, airlines, tourism operators and travel agents exhale with relief over extra business from the transtasman bubble, another part of the industry remains out in the cold. Cruise operators - and those who love to sail on the ships - are still marooned, unable to make the crossing.
Generally, the health concern with cruises is that people spend hours indoors - the most risky conditions for a Covid-19 super-spreader event.
MIAMI – The announcement by the Australian Government on a revised borders opening date, not foreseen before the end of 2021, has prompted Virgin Australian (VA) to update its short-haul international network.
New predictions for the aviation sector, including for international travel, issued by the Australian Federal Government and a low number of visitors expected at least until mid 2022, has pushed VA to delay most of its shorty-haul international flights to at least Decembre 2021. The destinations impacted by this decision include Fidj and Indonesia flights.
Virgin Australia is, however, taking full advantage of the Trans Tasman travel bubble and continue to operate Boeing 737 flights from Sydney (SYD) to Queenstown (ZQN) and Brisbane (BNE) to ZQN, starting September 18 followed by Melbourne (MEL) to ZQN effective December 7, 2021.