Quarantine-free flights from Australia could start within weeks

An air-travel corridor between Australia and New Zealand could be trialed within weeks, a key test of how international flights worldwide can resume while the coronavirus threat remains. Draft guidelines of how quarantine-free flights can safely operate between the countries will be handed to both governments in early June, according to the Australia New Zealand Leadership Forum, which is coordinating a group of government agencies, airports, airlines and health experts working on the plan. If the recommendations are approved, trials could start the following month, Ann Sherry, the forum’s Australian co-chair, said Wednesday. Tightly controlled flight bubbles -- which can be enlarged to include other countries -- have emerged as potential models for a global travel industry smashed by the pandemic. China and South Korea opened a narrow travel corridor with onerous restrictions this month, while border restrictions have been lifted in some parts of Europe. “We see ourselves probably as the first bit of international travel, but hopefully not the last if we can make this scalable and set the preconditions for making this work more broadly,” Sherry said. <br/>