October

1 October

Prime Minister Scott Morrison reveals he will likely not allow Queensland to receive flights from New Zealand because of the state’s insistence on hotel quarantine for domestic travel. The PM argues he can’t justify allowing trans-Tasman flights into Brisbane if it would mean precious hotel quarantine rooms were taken up by Kiwi arrivals. The intervention comes on the day Queensland’s Deputy Premier Steven Miles confirmed he won’t open his domestic borders to NSW until after the state’s election on 31 October.

Meanwhile, Virgin Australia chief executive Paul Scurrah reveals that the reborn business’ new strategy will see it become a “high-quality, value airline”. In an exclusive interview on the Australian Aviation Podcast, Scurrah says Virgin’s problems stemmed from spreading itself too thin and “trying to be too many things to too many people”. However, he insists the new-look airline will emerge from the pandemic with “75 plus” aircraft and offer a network “not too dissimilar” to what it had last year. He also hails Bain as “a really good owner” and says the relationship between the investors and the existing management team is like “a good marriage”.