Australia in the Covid spotlight – the business travel outlook according to airline, airport and tourism leaders

30 June, 2021

Australia's strict rules has meant that while it has been pretty much business as usual for much of the country's citizens in terms of socialising, the country has a whole has been under an enforced lockdown through international border closures and stringent limits on the number of returning citizens and outright bans from some virus hotspots.

This - on the whole - has kept a tight control on COVID-19 infection levels, while an efficient track-and-trace system has moved quickly to identify and limit any transmission. However the more infectious Indian Delta variant has found its way through a crack in the system and has quickly taken hold in the country, leading to the return of more stringent lockdowns across the country.

Worryingly, the variant has also shone a light on failures in Australia's vaccine programme. While some countries are said to be closing in on herd immunity, just under 5% of the adult population is fully vaccinated, with less than a third (29%) having received a first dose. In fact, Australia is last among OECD countries, when it comes to the rollout of vaccines.

It is a very fluid situation, but experts warn that Delta is likely to have changed Australia's Covid landscape for good. Ahead of the emergence of the variant in Australia, CAPA - Centre for Aviation and CTC - Corporate Travel Community had captured the viewpoints on business travel recovery from executives at the key Australian gateway airports, as well as leading carriers serving Australia on the sidelines of the Australian Tourism Exchange event at the ICC Sydney.

This montage of views was featured during the Jun-2021 edition of CAPA Live and provides a comprehensive wrap of what's going on in the business travel market across Australia. As is 'normal' right now, this is all subject to change.

https://vimeo.com/560679892