Qantas CEO Alan Joyce says COVID-19 vaccinations will be compulsory on Qantas flights once international travel takes off again and he will be changing the terms and conditions of travel to make sure of it.
Speaking on Australian TV show A Current Affair, Joyce also said vaccinations could possibly become mandatory for domestic travel, but that would depend on the situation at the time.
"For international travellers, we will ask people to have a vaccination before they get on the aircraft," Joyce said.
"Certainly, for international visitors coming out and people leaving the country we think that's a necessity."
Joyce also thinks Qantas won't be alone in enforcing the vaccine requirement.
"I think that's going to be a common thing talking to my colleagues in other airlines around the globe."
The comments from the Qantas boss came within hours of an announcement from the International Air Transport Association (IATA), which said it's in the final development phase of an IATA Travel Pass - a digital health pass that will support the safe reopening of borders.
"Today borders are double locked. Testing is the first key to enable international travel without quarantine measures," said IATA boss Alexandre de Juniac.
"The second key is the global information infrastructure needed to securely manage, share and verify test data matched with traveler identities in compliance with border control requirements. That's the job of IATA Travel Pass."
In the hours leading up to Joyce's interview, he'd been attending the reopening of the Sydney - Melbourne route, which was once the busiest flight path in the world.
"The two cities are unbelievably well connected and we went from 45 flights a day before COVID-19, to one flight a day," Joyce said.
"Today we're back to 70 flights on the first day of opening up."
And, with domestic travel likely to increase, Joyce is hoping to reinstate 1000 jobs for those who had been stood down due to COVID-19.
"If we can get Melbourne and Sydney back to where it was pre-COVID that will be 3000 people that didn't have a role, were stood down, were working at Woolworths, somewhere else that are working for the airline again," he told Channel 9.
Air New Zealand has been asked if they intend to implement a similar rule.
