With the loosening of local restrictions on international travel, Dubai airline Emirates has boosted capacity on flights to Australia from this week.
After Queensland permitted inbound international flights to return to full capacity, Emirates opted to increase the frequency of flights between Dubai and Brisbane to five times per week.
Starting Dec. 16, flights from Dubai to Brisbane can transport more than 350 passengers per flight. Flights to Perth will also be able to operate at full capacity from Feb. 5.
Frequency on flights EK420 and EK421 on the Dubai-Perth route will similarly increase to five times weekly.
“Emirates is excited to increase our inbound capacity to Brisbane and Perth as part of the continued return of international travel across the country,” says Barry Brown, divisional vice president Australasia at Emirates.
All of this is feasible thanks to Australia’s determination to reopen the country despite the additional risk posed by the highly-contagious Omicron variant.
“We’re going to live with this virus, and we’re not going to let it drag us back to where we’ve been,” Prime Minister Scott Morrison told radio station 4BC on the reopening day.
“We’ve got one of the highest vaccination rates, which means we can fight this thing. We don’t have to surrender to it.”
Epidemic figures do not appear to be encouraging, however. New South Wales has registered 2,482 new cases in the last 24 hours, which is Australia’s biggest daily COVID case tally ever, more than quadrupling its daily case total in only five days.
Australia has immunized nearly 90 percent of its population above 16 with two doses and decreased the waiting period for booster vaccinations after the discovery of several Omicron cases in the territory.
Foreseeing a significant increase in cases, Australia will be only allowing entry to vaccinated skilled migrants, foreign students, and tourists from Japan, South Korea, New Zealand, and Singapore for the time being.
The return of foreign students will bring back more than 35 billion Australian dollars ($25bn) to the local economy per year.