Air New Zealand CEO Greg Foran says a travel bubble between Australia and New Zealand without a mandatory quarantine could still be many months away.
He doesn’t believe trans-Tasman tourism will open up until after a vaccine is launched.
That would not happen until the year-end at the earliest and it may be March 2021 before leisure travel across the Ditch returns.
Eradicating Covid-19 is perhaps not realistic and everyone will have to live with it, he said.
"Elimination – which is a worthy thing to go after – is probably not sustainable based on what we’re now learning, which is the vaccine is not going to be 100% effective, not everybody is going to take it, and it’s going to take years to get distributed," Foran told the Sydney Morning Herald.
"I certainly do not believe we will see anything across the Tasman this calendar year. It’s hard to believe it would be before March next year and could well be longer."
Foran became Air NZ boss just as the virus was taking hold in China and spreading to Europe.
"I never got to experience Air NZ in anything but a crisis. I’m learning a new industry, we’re dealing with the biggest crisis that’s ever hit that industry, and the Government owns 52% of the company."
"The combination of those things has made this as challenging as any role that I’ve ever had," he said.
Written by Ray Montgomery, Asia Pacific editor
