Following a National Cabinet meeting late last week, Australia is temporarily reducing the number of weekly international passenger arrivals by around 50%. This follows new highly-transmissible strains of COVID-19 emerging in Europe. By mid-January, the number of inbound passengers allowed into Australia will be cut from around 6,000 people to 3,000 people each week.

In addition to several Qantas repatriation flights to Darwin that operate outside the arrivals quota, around 6,000 passengers are now allowed to land in Australia each week. Sydney Airport handles around half the number. Brisbane and Perth Airports each take around 1000 passengers weekly. Melbourne and Adelaide Airports take about 500 passengers each.

Every passenger goes into a mandatory self-funded 14-day quarantine at a supervised facility – usually a hotel. The spread around the various airports caters to hotel availability, local health system resources, and the co-operation of Australian state governments.

For the next month, the already low weekly arrival quota will halve until mid-February. In a media statement, the National Cabinet said on Friday; “International passenger caps in New South Wales, Queensland, and Western Australia will be temporarily halved from no later than 15 January 2021 to manage the flow of returning Australians and other travelers who have been potentially exposed to the new variants.

“Current international passenger caps in Victoria and South Australia and arrangements in the Northern Territory are considered manageable and will remain in place.”