Fresh off the back of PM Scott Morrison’s Australia’s four-phase pathway out of the pandemic announcement last week, The Flight Centre Travel Group (FCTG) has upped the ante by placing an advertisement in The Australian to present its own ‘roadmap to open up the world’ with some firm timelines we can all get excited about.
The quarter-page print advertisement was placed at the company’s own expense in ScoMo’s favourite read, The Australian over the weekend, with the aim of dialling up the narrative on the great border debate by publicly pushing a more determined agenda to resume international travel.
To grab the attention of our nation’s leaders, the ad led with the challenge, ‘To the Prime Minister and Premiers, here’s what Australia’s road to freedom could look like. What is your road to Australia’s freedom?’
Named ‘A roadmap to open up the world’, The Flight Centre Travel Group timeline aims for January 2022 as the magic month where the ‘virus becomes endemic in Australia and society lives with it,’ and ‘Australia is free!’
The four phases of The Flight Centre Travel Group’s ‘Roadmap to open up the world’
To sum up FCTG’s proposed ‘alternative’ plan, 50% of Australian adults would be jabbed with one or two shots by the end of July 2021, rising from the current 17.7% who have been vaccinated with one shot or 7.35% of the population fully vaccinated to date.
As we move through August to December 2021 on FCTG’s road to freedom, 70% of adults would be jabbed with one or two shots around September.
5-days home quarantine would also be introduced around September, reducing to 3-days in November with a negative PCR test for travellers to medium to low-risk countries and hotel quarantine only needed if travellers were arriving from a high-risk country.
By the end of 2021, it would be hoped that 100% of adult Australians would be vaccinated with one or two shots and the eventual goal of ‘Freedom at last,’ and international departures galore achieved in January 2022.
Meaning also, that there would be no quarantine for all fully vaccinated arrivals.
FCTG also suggest that full vaccination would be compulsory for international air travel.
A realistic timeframe?
As the old saying goes, “Aim for the stars, and if you fail, you’ll still land on the moon.”
Surely that has to be better than no goal, timeframes or milestones whatsoever?
