Important information for passengers travelling to or transiting through Australia
Latest News|Published 21 March 2020
The Australian Border Force has officially closed Australian borders to international arrivals, effective 9pm AEDT 20 March.
This restriction applies to both passengers travelling to Australia, and to passengers transiting through Australia and connecting onto international services.
Current Australian citizens, permanent residents of Australia and New Zealand citizens residing in Australia can return to Australia at any time, but will be subject to a 14-day mandatory quarantine period.
The Australian government has implemented a 72-hour waiver for all passport holders, effective 12pm AEDT 21 March. This waiver permits all foreign passport holders to transit through Australia and commence their return journey until 12pm AEDT 24 March.
- Foreign nationals who have been in China, Iran, the Republic of Korea or Italy in the last 14 days will not be permitted transit through Australia; and
- All transits must occur on the same day as arrival and passengers will be required to remain airside in the airport.
The following options are available to your customers, depending on their booking and passport:
Transiting passengers
- Rebook the passenger on a flight leaving before 12pm AEDT 24 March 2020 to comply with Australian Border Force waiver.
- Use Qantas waiver related to Coronavirus-related government restrictions to rebook on Qantas or re-route using other carriers.
- If your customer is reconsidering their travel plans, please cancel the booking and the value of the ticket is retained in credit. Authority number 623063 must be entered into the endorsement box to avoid ADM. For further details, click here.
Passengers travelling Trans-Tasman
- Current Australian citizens, permanent residents of Australia and New Zealand citizens residing in Australia can return to Australia
- For all other queries, including travel by immediate family members (e.g. spouse, dependents, legal guardian) of Australian citizens and permanent residents with a temporary visa should refer to Smart Traveller.
- All Trans-Tasman schedule changes through until the end of March have now been actioned. Impacted customers will now have received confirmation from Qantas regarding these cancellations.
Please note that we are contacting customers due to travel in coming days. If your customer contacts us directly, we will work with the customer on viable alternates.