An 18-month ban on Australians travelling abroad will be lifted from November, Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced on Friday.
The first phase of the plan to ease one of world’s toughest set of Covid-19 restrictions will focus on citizens and permanent residents being allowed to leave Australia.
Further changes are expected to permit foreign travellers to enter the country.
Passengers will be required to quarantine at home for seven days upon arrival in Australia. The Australian government indicated that some of its eight states and territories would open earlier than others.
It’s time to give Australians their lives back
“It’s time to give Australians their lives back. We've saved lives,” Mr Morrison said during a televised media conference. “We’ve saved livelihoods, but we must work together to ensure that Australians can reclaim the lives that they once had in this country.”
Responding to the announcement, Qantas said it would restart some international flights a month earlier than planned.
The airline will operate three weekly return flights between Sydney and London and three weekly return flights between Sydney and Los Angeles starting on November 14.
Citizens and permanent residents have been allowed to return from abroad, subject to quota limits and a mandatory 14-day quarantine period in a hotel at their own expense.
There have also been a few high-profile exceptions granted for entry for business purposes, including Hollywood actors to film movies and TV shows.
Mr Morrison said he expects the first home quarantine systems to be up and running in November, but the timetable will be set by individual states and territories.
He said his government was working towards quarantine free travel with countries such as New Zealand when “safe to do so”.
Australia’s strict border closure has been credited with keeping both fatalities and infections relatively low. It has recorded just over 107,000 Covid-19 cases and about 1,300 deaths since the start of the pandemic.
