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Australia Adds More Flights to Bring Stranded Citizens Home

Australia Adds More Flights to Bring Stranded Citizens Home

Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s government is adding more commercial flights from the U.K., India and South Africa and boosting quarantine places so that more Australians stranded overseas by the pandemic can return home.

Morrison said Qantas Airways Ltd. will provide eight flights over coming weeks from London, New Delhi and Johannesburg. Australia’s capacity to let citizens and permanent residents back into the country has been constrained, as all returned travelers have to undertake quarantine in hotels for 14 days.

An additional 5,000 quarantine places will be available over the next six months under an agreement with the Northern Territory government to open up a facility near Darwin.

There are more than 29,000 Australians currently registered with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade wishing to return home.

©2020 Bloomberg L.P.