Over by Christmas: Air Service deliver presents to post-war Berlin at Tempelhof Airport 1948. Photo / Bettmann, Getty Images
COMMENT:
There's a lot of pressure put on 25 December. Whether it's about presents, family commitments or mass remobilisation, expectations are heaped onto the day.
The anticipation creates an arbitrary sort of deadline we can't help but fall for.
However, there has not been this much riding on the yuletide since 1914.
Last week the Australian PM Scott Morrison announced that they would be lifting the 18-month Covid-19 travel ban on its citizens from next month.
It wasn't so much "over by Christmas" as "over there by Christmas".
On Friday, the gun-ho undertones were evident in the PM's speech, as reported by AP.
"We've saved lives. We've saved livelihoods, but we must work together to ensure that Australians can reclaim the lives that they once had in this country," Morrison said.
While there was no timetable for this re-opening of borders, national carrier Qantas has scheduled international flights to resume from 14 November.
London and LA will be the first destination to see the big Christmas push, as vaccinated Australian travellers will be allowed to travel once more.
However, a little closer to home the Tasman would be a tougher ditch to bridge.
Vaccination, not elimination would be the key driver of the Australian return overseas. The bans would be lifted once the target of 80 per cent of the population aged 16 and older were fully vaccinated
This puts Australia at odds with New Zealand's more cautious approach. The 95-day quarantine free corridor between the two countries was closed by the current Covid outbreak in New South Wales. It's an outbreak they have given up on trying to contain.
There was no other timetable or mention on whether other nationalities might be able to travel to Australia from November.
"We'll be working towards complete quarantine-free travel for certain countries, such as New Zealand when it is safe to do so," Morrison told reporters on Friday.
It appears that Kiwis will not be invited for Christmas.
There was some glimpse of a potential return to travel with our nearest neighbours for Waitangi, if not for Weihnachts.
On Sunday morning Air New Zealand announced a new "no jab, no fly policy". The airline will only carry fully vaccinated on international routes from 1 February.
"Being vaccinated against COVID-19 is the new reality of international travel – many of the destinations Kiwis want to visit are already closed to unvaccinated visitors," said airline boss Greg Foran.
"The quicker we get vaccinated, the sooner we can fly Kiwis to places like New York, Vancouver and Narita."
The airline said it has landed on the vaccination mandate as part of ongoing work with the Government and airport groups, referencing the Reconnecting New Zealanders plan. The fourth and final step of this plan is to open up "quarantine-free travel for vaccinated travellers".
The airline says it will be using the IATA Travel Pass app to verify passengers vaccine status, rather than current paper vaccination letters.
Lou Reed might have said "there's no Christmas in February" but, for international travel, I'm willing to postpone.
When there's nothing as far as the eye can see, you may appreciate the company.