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NSW tightens rules for international flight crews
New South Wales has beefed up rules for international flight crews, after a breach of existing regulations.
Crews returning after working on Qantas repatriation flights are required to take a Covid test before being allowed home where they must isolate.
Cabin crew from non-Australian airlines are required to stay in designated hotels which are overseen by police.
The new restrictions take effect on 22 December.
NSW Police issued fines of $1,000 to 13 crew members for leaving their hotel recently.
Although crew are on a stopover usually lasting one or two days, they are required to follow similar restrictions to passengers in supervised quarantine hotels.
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian defended the initial rules for visiting flight crew.
"The issue isn’t the guidelines that we have in place, it’s, unfortunately, a few occasions where people have breached the guidelines, or actually chose not to self-isolate when they should have, From now, there will be no chance of disobedience," the Premier said.
The new rules come into effect as Sydney’s Northern Beaches are currently on lockdown after an outbreak.
There are 83 confirmed cases so far.
Dozens of flights were cancelled out of Sydney Airport on Monday.
Queensland, Victoria, South Australia and the ACT have banned Sydney residents entering their states, dashing hopes of a busy Christmas holiday period for domestic travel.
Written by Ray Montgomery, Asia Editor
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TravelMole Editorial Team
Editor for TravelMole North America and Asia pacific regions. Ray is a highly experienced (15+ years) skilled journalist and editor predominantly in travel, hospitality and lifestyle working with a huge number of major market-leading brands. He has also cover in-depth news, interviews and features in general business, finance, tech and geopolitical issues for a select few major news outlets and publishers.
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