Hipkins said any new facilities may look similar to hotel-based MIQ services but would be heavily adapted to provide longer term quarantine capabilities.
The minister would not comment on whether any property had been identified for long term use, but outlined some of the factors that could affect the location. I think we would avoid the central city, but we wouldn t want to be too far out of a major population area. The reason for that is you still have to staff the facilities, you still have to have people working in them and if you put them in the middle of nowhere that becomes very, very challenging and very difficult, he said.
“As much as we wish the addition of the long haul flights to our schedule meant the reopening of the borders, unfortunately, it does not,” Carr said.
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Air New Zealand has been using its 787-9 to service long haul routes. “It also provides Kiwis that are wanting to return home after October 31 some certainty around when we intend to operate in order for them to secure their MIQ spaces.” In March last year Air New Zealand announced significant capacity reductions across its network as a result of the impact of Covid-19 on travel. Long haul network reductions included the suspension of flights between Auckland and Chicago, San Francisco, Houston, Vancouver, Tokyo, Honolulu, Denpasar and Taipei.
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But a recent conversation with Helen Clark, who co-chairs the Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response set up by the World Health Organisation (WHO), presented a different scenario. “She was saying she does not expect life to be back to normal, as we previously knew it, in her lifetime,” Fyfe said.
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Rob Fyfe says New Zealand has a lot of work to do to navigate the next phase of the pandemic. Fyfe has been involved with the Government’s Covid-19 response and recovery since the start of the pandemic. He said that early on the Government was working in a vacuum of information and businesses were not prepared for what was happening which made the first few weeks of lockdown difficult.
Auckland Airport was up 5.4 per cent at $7.61, with $39 million worth of shares traded. The A$22 billion (NZ$23.6 billion) offer for Australia’s biggest airport showed the potential in the sector, Williamson said.
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A surge in Auckland Airport shares after a takeover offer for Sydney Airport helped boost the sharemarket. “Investors are saying Auckland Airport is undervalued.” The unsolicited offer for Sydney Airport from a group of infrastructure investors was at a significant 42 per cent premium to the shares’ close on Friday. Sydney Airport shares were up 32 per cent on Monday afternoon, at A$7.68. However, the aviation and tourism sectors remain under pressure, with further disruption to the trans-Tasman travel bubble. On Monday afternoon, the Government extended a pause on quarantine-free travel with the Australian states of New South Wales and Queensland due to the number of cases of Covid-19.