Qantas has announced the airline is in talks with the Indonesian government to allow Australian visitors to enter Bali with reduced to no quarantine.
The move comes after New South Wales (NSW) Australia confirmed that passengers will no longer be subject to quarantine, as of Nov. 1.
“Discussions are underway with the Indonesian Government about welcoming fully vaccinated Australians back to Bali with reduced or no quarantine requirements,” reads the latest Qantas press release.
This “would mean the resumption of Jetstar and Qantas flights from Sydney to the holiday island months earlier than scheduled.”
It’s difficult to predict if Indonesia will approve such a petition. On Oct. 11, Bali’s Deputy Governor announced that after a thorough examination, the country had decided to shorten its quarantine period from 8 to 5 days.
But when asked if Bali would agree to reduce it further, the Deputy said that Bali officials “agreed that it’s still not possible to completely revoke the quarantine policy for Bali visitors.”
Qantas CEO Alan Joyce, on the other hand, is willing to negotiate.
The CEO stated that he and the federal government would agree to resume operations if Australian travelers to Bali could spend a couple of days “in the resort” before being granted permission to freely tour the island.
“At the moment there are quarantine requirements for people to spend up to seven days in their hotel room, which nobody is going to go to Bali to do that,” Joyce said on Friday morning.
Indonesia may think it calls the shots, but it’s Australia the one that has what is needed to win the power game; aircraft, and high-spender tourists eager to come back.
In fact, Australia was not even part of the 19 countries selected to return to the island.
The truth is that despite the fact Bali reopened for tourism on October 14, it has not managed to attract any airlines to restore service, as Thailand and other nearby countries already have done.
Joyce clearly expressed the holiday island needs Australian tourists to “revitalize its economy.”
Thus, if negotiations go as planned, Australians could be traveling to Bali before Christmas.