Vaccination requirements for international travel

The age of international travel is arriving in Australia once again. As we (or at least our readers in Sydney) take our first tentative steps towards open borders, we still have plenty of questions about the travel experience.

One important thing to consider? The vaccination and testing requirements of the country you’re travelling to. That, and also your preferred airline’s policy.

For example, Qantas will only allow fully-vaccinated (or exempt) individuals onboard its international flights. Virgin Australia has not yet implemented a broad vaccination requirement for its upcoming international flights.

Virgin Australia will continue to work with governments on vaccination and quarantine requirements for returning Australians and other visitors in order to re-open Australia to the world. We will continue to cooperate with the Government and agencies on aviation-specific initiatives and are committed to doing our part to help drive vaccination rates across the country. 

– Virgin Australia spokesperson, 18 October 2021

Vaccination and testing requirements for overseas travel

Are you heading overseas? To avoid quarantine, you should be fully vaccinated and follow testing rules. Exemptions might apply to children under 12 years old, as well as those with medical reasons.

Based on publicly-available information, here are the vaccination and testing requirements for major airlines that service Australia, as well as the home countries:

Vaccinations are the key to smooth travel

At this stage, most airlines are not mandating COVID vaccinations or testing before international flights. However, most destinations are enforcing pre-departure testing and will only allow quarantine-free entry for vaccinated travellers.

There are some limited cases where unvaccinated travellers may be able to travel, such as flying Emirates from Australia to London with a short transit in Dubai. For example:

• You don’t have to be fully vaccinated or be tested to fly on Emirates.
• Dubai doesn’t require you to take a test during a transit from Australia.
• The UK doesn’t require you to take a test before departure from Australia. However, you would need to undergo quarantine for 10 days and take two COVID tests upon arrival.

In this instance, you wouldn’t be able to fly Qantas to the United Kingdom, as Qantas will only let fully-vaccinated travellers on board unless you’re under 12 years old or medically exempt.

Summing up

The next few months will get messy as we work through the different entry and travel requirements of each country and airline. Most countries won’t accept basic COVID tests that only give you results by SMS. However, the UK and US are accepting cheaper and quicker tests as an alternative to PCR.

If you do need to take a PCR or RT-PCR test, this will cost about $150 a pop in Australia. It can be even more overseas, depending on the currency.

Hopefully, as time goes on, we’ll reach a milestone where enough of the community is protected from the worst effects of the virus. The ultimate goal is to reduce the number of hurdles with travelling and to keep associated costs down.

International travel – how we’ve missed you!