Air NZ crew not the problem - it's been NZ border control, says expert

Rules for Air NZ international crew returning home have tightened up after two cases of Covid-19 were discovered, but they are not the problem, says aviation expert Irene King. Following Ministry of Health requirements, Air NZ international crew had largely been exempt from quarantine since the coronavirus lockdown. Now they have to self-isolate at home for two days, take a Covid-19 test, and continue to self-isolate until the results were known, if they had stayed for longer than two nights overseas. Crew can fly domestically to get home to self-isolate. The Ministry of Health updated its requirements for international air crew on June 16, the day two new cases of coronavirus emerged. Anyone flying between Australia and New Zealand must now also wear a facemask to stop the spread of the coronavirus, an about-turn on earlier advice that face masks for air travel were neither recommended nor required but not discouraged. King said the Ministry of Health saw Air NZ crew as much less risky than anyone else crossing the border. Flying was not the issue because the air was clean on planes, and the risk was also very small at foreign ports, assuming crew followed the quarantine rules. "They're coming out of quarantine in a hotel through a terminal to an aircraft," King said. "It's a known hotel, and they get carted to and from the terminal, and they're whisked through the terminal to the crew room, so it's not like you're just wandering through the terminals. To assess the risk you'd have to have some data - Air New Zealand must be monitoring their crew coming off these flights."<br/>