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More than 200 flights a week will soon take to Australia's skies, with the Federal Government giving $160 million to Virgin Australia and Qantas in exchange for a base number of routes around Australia.
Before the announcement, Qantas had been reduced to running 105 services a week, while Virgin could afford to fly just one return route six days a week.
Demand for domestic flights has severely dried up, and Virgin has been pressing the Government to lend it $1.4 billion to see it through the crisis.
So far the Government has been holding out on that request, but here's what the Government's announcement means for the airline industry and passengers.
So are we allowed to fly now?
Not really, no.
The revamping of domestic routes is unrelated to travel restrictions imposed at various state borders around Australia, and rules around essential travel.
But the new routes will allow essential workers to move around the country, so they can get to where they are most needed.
The flights will "ferry important equipment around the nation, particularly medical equipment and medicine, but also ferry defence personnel, medical personnel, key medical people who need to get around the country," Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack said.
Qantas says many of the flights it will run will not be commercially viable, but will still be serving a purpose moving valuable supplies around Australia.
"These flights will also provide critical freight capacity, which has fallen significantly as commercial air networks have shrunk," the airline said in a statement.
"Much of the bellyspace on these flights will be used for mail and other urgent shipments, including medical equipment."
Getting home ... slowly
Another group set to benefit from more domestic flights is returned international travellers finishing their time in mandatory hotel quarantine.
With restrictions requiring all international arrivals to be quarantined in the city they first arrive in, rather than their final destination, many travellers have been left stranded in different parts of the country, unsure of how to get home.
After disembarking from the Vasco da Gama cruise ship in Western Australia, Noreen Jensen found herself stuck, unable to return home to Mackay, Queensland, due to a lack of flights.
"We got out of quarantine on Easter Friday, we've been sitting in limbo since then," she said.
"There were no other options."
Ms Jensen said she had been able to book flights with Virgin, but that the demand for seats was evident.
"If I wanted to go tomorrow there was business class only," she said.
Where will the planes fly?
Between them, Qantas and Virgin will fly more than 200 routes a week, for the next eight weeks.
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That's how long the Government has offered to underwrite the cost of the flights for.
The routes will mean planes are flying between all Australia's major cities, along with an array of regional areas.
The full list of routes for Qantas and Virgin can be found on their respective websites.
Will this put an end to Virgin's woes?
There have been concerns that Virgin will not be able to survive the pandemic in its current form without Government assistance.
And while the airline has welcomed the Government help, the company went ahead this morning with an emergency meeting with unions and experts to discuss ways to avoid voluntary administration.
Mr McCormack said he did not expect many of the new routes to be profitable, but that the decision was "to get their planes back in the air".
Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese said, despite the announcement, more long-term help for the airline and its 15,000 workers was needed.
He called on the Government to consider buying a stake in the troubled business, with a view to selling it after the crisis passes.
"It needs to do more than wash its hands of this issue," he said.
"If money is given as an equity injection, for example, that protects taxpayers' interests and ensures that at a future time, that equity can be sold down potentially at a higher value."
The Government has been reluctant to engage with calls for targeted support for Virgin, and has alluded recently to the potential for a takeover of the airline, which would reduce pressure on the Government to step in.
"There is interest, yes," Mr McCormack said, describing the potential for a takeover bid as "encouraging".
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Topics: government-and-politics, infectious-diseases-other, federal-government, health, respiratory-diseases, covid-19, community-and-society, australia