Sydney limits inbound flight load to 50 passengers

SYDNEY, 5 July 2020:

International flights to Sydney’s international airport won’t be allowed to carry more than 50 passengers, according to the new rules that began yesterday.

The authorities of New South Wales, whose capital is Sydney, further placed the cap of a total 450 arrivals per day – forcing several airlines to maintain their routes suspended.

The limit on the number of arrivals was decided following the cancellation of all the Melbourne bound flights until July 15, in the state of Victoria, which has reported a spike in Covid-19 cases.

Victoria Health authorities yesterday confirmed more than 100 new infections, marking the highest figures in weeks.

Despite Australian borders remaining closed to commercial flights, a handful of special flights to send Australians and foreigners with residential permits operate from the UK.

The cap on these flights means that “flights could be disrupted, delayed or cancelled,” Australian High Commission in the UK said on its social media accounts.

People arriving in Sydney will have to remain in obligatory isolation of 14 days in one of the 22 hotels designated as quarantine centres.

Australia – which is in the last phase of lockdown, with exceptions of several areas in the state of Victoria, and seeks to have its economy return to normalcy by the end of July – has reported around 8,250 infections and 104 deaths due to Covid-19 since the beginning of the outbreak.

– EFE