CORPORATE TRAVEL
BOARDING PASS
Why you should renew your boss ’ s passport now
With Australia and NZ ’ s international borders closed , the need to renew an expired passport seems redundant . It ’ s true , it ’ s an awful lot of money and time to waste on something you can ’ t use yet . And a lot of Australians and New Zealanders are in agreeance with this as figures from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade ’ s Passport Office show a significant drop in renewals .
Based on the number of passports that were issued in 2018-19 , around 552,000 Australian passports were expected to be issued between April and June . However , there was a 67 % reduction in renewals , which resulted in a loss of $ 111 million in revenue to the Australian Government . So , the logic still stands . Why would you renew your executive ’ s passport now ? Your executives might not be concerned about renewing it while they aren ’ t able to attend any international meetings and events , but consider this : what happens when the borders finally open ? Everyone who didn ’ t want to renew or apply for a passport in 2020 will suddenly want a rush order so they can travel again . The influx of applications is expected to be through the roof , and will no doubt cause extreme delays and wait times . Especially considering the delays COVID-19 has already inflicted on post delivery times .
While it might not seem like something useful in the current circumstances — considering corporate travel is expected to have a slow return — renewing it now could save your executive a lot of hassle down the track . And with a Trans-Tasman travel bubble on the horizon , your executive will be on a plane to your NZ counterparts sooner than you ’ d think . S
International flights to and from Melbourne expected to return in November
After putting a stop to all inbound international flights in early July , Melbourne ’ s Premier Dan Andrews has announced that these flights could resume by the end of the month .
“ We need to do this properly … as soon as we can safely have that system set up and have those flights returning , we will and I am very confident we will be able to have that well before Christmas ,” he said .
Andrews has pushed for these flights to resume in a bid to bring stranded Australian ’ s home in time for Christmas . But while international business travel is still a while off , this is a promising step to seeing the Australian travel industry recover .
The federal government intends to open all state borders by the end of the year and to have international travel bubbles with COVID-safe countries such as New Zealand , Pacific Islands such as Fiji , Vanuatu and New Caledonia , Singapore , Hong Kong , and Japan by 2021 . S
Japan Airlines retires its domestic Boeing 777s
Being one of the only countries that features international-grade Boeing 777s on a domestic route , this news may come with disappointment . But after suffering an annual loss of US $ 3.6 billion , Japan Airlines ( JAL ) had no choice but to retire its 13 Boeing 777 jets . As well as this , JAL will also remove 11 long-range Boeing
777-200ERs from its international network by March 2021 .
But never fear , if your executive likes to travel on the Boeing 777 for business , both JAL and its main competitor ANA , have similar domestic alternatives — along with a Boeing 787 Dreamliner and exclusive to JAL , the Airbus A350 . S
Issue 2 2020 | Chief of Staff 49