Sydney reopens to quarantine-free entry from Nov 1; Qantas shares surge

[SYDNEY] Australia's most populous state will open to fully-vaccinated international travelers from Nov 1, ending a protracted border ban that has kept the nation largely isolated from the rest of the world since the pandemic started more than 18 months ago.

In a major policy shift, newly-installed New South Wales state Premier Dominic Perrottet on Friday (Oct 15) said fully-vaccinated international travellers would no longer need to quarantine in a hotel for 14 days upon arrival. There'll be no need for home quarantine either, meaning tourists will be allowed to travel freely around the state.

"For double-vaccinated people around the world, Sydney, New South Wales is open for business," Perrottet said at a media conference. "We want people back."

The announcement is an acceleration of plans to end Australia's Covid isolation as vaccination rates climb. Earlier this month, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said international borders would open in mid-November.

It's also a rapid change for Sydney, which only started to emerge from more than 100 days of lockdown on Monday after an outbreak of the more infectious delta variant put paid to the state's Covid-Zero policy.

Australia has been subject to one of the world's strictest controls on overseas travel since the pandemic hit in March 2020, with caps placed on arrivals and returning travellers subject to hotel quarantine at their own cost.

Shares of Qantas Airways jumped as much as 4.3 per cent after the announcement, before paring gains to be 2.2 per cent higher at 12:03 pm Sydney time.

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