Flying Australia to the UK in the time of Covid: which airlines still fly from Australia.

19^th Sep 2020

Australia is the only country in the world to ban not only its citizens, but other passport holders who are here, from leaving. However, if you are lucky enough to win in the lottery of getting an exit pass, you may find it is even harder find an airline that will fly you there.

UPDATE: you can now fly via Singapore or Thailand without having to quarantine for 14 days on arrival in the UK

Remember the heady days when you could be in Australia in the morning, and land at Heathrow the same day? The days when there were 25 airlines to choose from and flights around the clock from Sydney to London, meaning you could pop back to the UK just for a beer. That was way back in 2019.

Covid: which airlines still fly from Australia?

Now in the time of Covid, there are precisely two airlines which fly once a day between Australia and the UK if you don't want to spend two weeks in Quarantine.

Permit to Leaving Australia

Firstly, the basics. Don't imagine for a moment that having a UK passport allows you to leave Australia. As a permanent Australian resident you are banned from leaving the country, and requests for an exemption on compassionate grounds are likely to be turned down.

Australian citizens and permanent residents need to have government permission to travel or move abroad, but around three-quarters of applications have been rejected. Despite being tested and kept in quarantine for 14 days on their return. This pointless restriction, with no basis whatsoever, has been described as 'uncontroversial'.

This article in the FT has the headline: "Frustrated Australians liken travel bans to 'prison state' diktats", and yet it is often a surprise to find that most of the world is unaware of this, and many Australians are too, despite the world's toughest Covid-19 travel rules, "more typical of North Korea than a liberal democracy" as it says.

Apart from banning residents and citizens from leaving the country, there is a cap of 4,000 passengers permitted out. But this is the upper cap. With most airports in Australia out of the loop internationally, the only realistic option is Sydney, with a cap of 350 passengers a day or 2450 a week. Remember when it was 100,000? My, that was months ago.

So you'll be damn lucky to get a permit out anyway. If you want to try, here's the link. At least there is an online process now: for many months, if you wanted to leave you had to email DFAT, and hope they replied within a month.

Flights out of Australia

OK, if you got lucky in that round, the second issue you will have is getting a flight out. Forget the luxury of six months ago, when the UK-Sydney corridor was one of the most competitive in the world.

Your options are basically these flights:

Etihad, or Emirates, four flights a week. However you will need a Covid Test to get on board within 96 hours of their flight. Its a case of "no test, no ticket", regardless of if you're headed to the UAE or onwards. Oh, and it's got to be a locally approved medical clinic. Both land you 14 days self isolation on arrival.

Qatar, once a day. Again, you'll need to quarantine for 14 days when you land in the UK.

British Airways of course have stopped all flights to Australia, as have a vast, long list of carriers.

You could try Delta to the US. Indeed, American Airlines say they will start flights again within a few months. However, while you may enter the US without issue, from the US to the UK gets a 14 day quarantine.

Indeed, note that every one of these flights will land you a 14 day quarantine stay in the UK. Think that flying from Australia makes you exempt from that rule? Think again.

Also remember you will need a home in the UK to spend those 14 days, or a hotel which will permit you to self isolate. Very few hotels will allow this.

Or, as below, once a week on Malaysia or five times a week on Cathay.

Flying to the UK and avoiding Quarantine

Note that the list of UK travel corridor countries regularly changes.

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/coronavirus-covid-19-travel-corridors

Scotland has a different list: https://www.gov.scot/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-public-health-checks-at-borders/pages/exemptions

Alas, You will need to self-isolate if you visited or made a transit stop in a country or territory that is not on the travel corridor list in the 14 days before you arrive in England. This basically means, if you change planes. And that means pretty much every airline, from Emirates to Etihad. There is no getting around this.

There are no direct flights any more, now that Qantas has abandoned its direct flights from Perth to London - which, incidentally, would have landed you 14 days quarantine in Western Australia on the way out anyway.

Alas neither the UAE or Qatar are included on the corridor list, which are the usual ways out of the country. Indeed, looking at the list the only way to enter the UK from Australia without the quarantine requirement would be a one-stop flight to the UK via Hong Kong, Seoul, Singapore, Thailand, or Japan.

However, Korean Airlines and Asiana have cancelled all flights to Sydney, so Seoul is out. Japan Airlines are flying from Sydney again - but they fly the planes empty out of Australia, just carrying freight, which is just odd.

Vietnam is also on the UK exempt list, but there are no flights out of Sydney until 25th of October.

Thai Airways have cancelled all flights from Australia until at least November, so they are realistically out of the equation.

So the only possible option is Cathay Pacific or Malaysia Airways, and now amazingly Singapore now the Lion City has been added to the corridor list.

Malaysian only fly once a week at the moment, on a Thursday, and charge and arm and a leg for that flight, so it's Cathay Pacific via Hong Kong or nothing, who only fly five times a week. A sample search shows the typical airfare a few days out being around 10,000 AUD. In economy. The only possible flight that works leaves Sydney at 1545, and arrives into Heathrow at 0500, with two hours changing flights in Hong Kong.

But with Singapore Airlines now on the corridor list, it is possible to take one of the few Singapore Airline's flights that work. Remember when Singapore flew five times a day out of Sydney? Now it's five times a week, with Wednesday and Thursday out of the equation. The only possible flight leaves Sydney at 1600, with two hours in Singapore, and arrives into Heathrow at 0555. Prices are very high, at nearly $2000AUD one way but if you want to camp on the floor at the terminal in Singapore you can bring the price down to an almost reasonable $1200 booking a couple of months out.

At the moment it is best to wait until only a couple of days before your planned departure date incase countries move on or out of the exempt list, but equally you'll want to book as soon as possible to ensure you get a seat. Note that quite regularly airlines are bumping passengers out of economy too, so it can be very difficult to know whether to jump at the cheapest price, or wait until the last moment.

Do remember as well that travel insurance will be virtually impossible to get.

At that price, you would have to really really need to get to the UK.

Warning. This does not constitute official advice. Note that Dfat advises against any travel. So do we. These countries can, and do, change entry rules and quarantine at a moments notice.

Curious about that flight that let you leave Australia in the morning, and land at Heathrow the same day? That was the old Emirates flight that left at 6am, and rocked up at Heathrow at 6pm. Oh, for those days again

This article was updated on 19th September, to reflect the addition of Singapore as one of the only two viable travel options.

Flying Australia to the UK in the time of Covid: which airlines still fly from Australia.

Covid: which airlines still fly from Australia?

Permit to Leaving Australia

Flights out of Australia

Flying to the UK and avoiding Quarantine

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