Scenes like something from Love Actually are already filling Queensland airports as Canberrans join the flock of people making their way across the border for the first time in months.
From 1am on Monday, double-vaccinated travellers from the ACT were able to enter Queensland without quarantine.
Eliza Cowley is a medical student at the ANU who grew up in the town of Goondiwindi, located in the south-west of Queensland on the NSW border. She was due to fly the Canberra-to-Brisbane route last night and couldn't be more excited.
"It's the first time in 18 months that I'll be home for longer than a day and throughout the various lockdowns I've had to cancel a bunch of flights, so this visit is definitely long overdue," Ms Cowley said.
"It's been pretty tough at times studying medicine here in Canberra and not being able to see my family. They run a sheep farm and also grow some crops which is an entirely different setting to live in compared to the ACT so I really miss it."
"My first night will be at my sister's place in Brisbane though because roads are flooded on the way to my home town, so I still have a bit of a wait until I see the rest of my family but I imagine when I do see them there will be lots of hugs and tears."
The popularity of flights to Queensland from the ACT is already surging according to Nancy Dave who is a senior travel consultant for Flight Centre.
"We have been totally flat out since the start of this week, everyone is rebooking their previously cancelled trips to Queensland or making new holiday plans to the area," Ms Dave said.
"We are almost exclusively getting booking requests for Queensland because it's such a popular school holiday location."
"Overall across all the Canberra stores, we have about 15 agents and they made a minimum of five new bookings each on Monday alone. I've just made my sixth sale since lunchtime so we're expecting more to come for the rest of the week."
This week alone Qantas will be operating 49 flights between Canberra and Queensland which is triple the number of flights compared to the previous week.
It is only expected to further ramp up coming into Christmas, with 90 weekly flights operating between Canberra and Queensland next week.
Alex Taylor is one of those bookings, with a flight already scheduled for Christmas Eve.
He has been working in the field of engineering this summer and has lived in Canberra for the past four years, saying this will be one of the most special Christmases.
"I'm very excited to see my family this Christmas and I cannot believe it's been almost a full year since I last saw them in Brisbane," Mr Taylor said.
"While I love working and living in the ACT, you can't beat seeing family and having a home-cooked meal from where you grew up."
Booking site Webjet has also recorded a significant increase in flight bookings. From the week commencing November 29 compared to December 6 there has been a 130 per cent increase in flights to Brisbane, a 450 per cent increase to Cairns and a 300 per cent increase to Sunshine Coast.
Queensland Police Commissioner Katarina Carroll announced 23,500 applications for hotspot travel passes were available from Monday at 10am.
