Auckland International Airport staff are readying themselves for the opening of the trans-Tasman bubble on Monday, one admitting he “never got used to the silence”.
The Government announced the much-awaited news on April 6 – ever since, plans have been afoot to prepare travellers for transit.
Quarantine-free travel will resume under a traffic light system from 11.59pm on Sunday, April 18.
Under the system, flights to and from the affected Australian states can be paused for 72 hours or longer if necessary if Covid-19 cases are discovered from an unknown source.
Airport Operations Manager, Ebrahim Cassim told Seven Sharp “the quietness never quite sunk in”.
“I’m so excited to have everyone back on board and have this place buzzing again,” he says.
CEO of Auckland International Airport, Adrian Littlewood says he thinks the green flights will be “really safe" in terms of any chance of becoming infected with the coronavirus.
About 400 quarantine-free flights are expected to arrive and depart from the airport before the end of the month, compared to just 36 flights to and from Australia in the first week of April.
Trans-Tasman passengers and those required to go into managed isolation will be kept apart, with the airport's terminal separation coming into effect today.
Those heading across the ditch are expected to complete a travel declaration at least 72 hours before departure.
“We know this will be a confidence game for people wanting to travel, so we are really determined to make this work, so splitting our terminal completely and physically into two parts, maintaining those separate flights - separate utility system, air conditioning system, it’s actually completely split system,” Littlewood says.
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