• Quarantine-free travel today resumed between Australia and New Zealand for the first time in more than a year.
• In a joint statement with New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, Scott Morrison called the system a “win-win” for both nations.
• Australia’s international border is otherwise closed, but vaccinated Australians may be permitted to undertake essential travel in the second half of the year, Morrison said Sunday.
• Visit Business Insider Australia’s homepage for more stories.

Quarantine-free travel between Australia and New Zealand has restarted, reconnecting families, businesses, and tourists more than a year after COVID-19 restrictions created an invisible barrier across the Tasman.

From today, travellers from Australia will be permitted to enter New Zealand without spending two weeks in mandatory isolation upon arrival.

The system is conditional on the number of cases in each jurisdiction. However, it is poised to rejoin families after an extended period apart, and slowly mend the $2.7 billion hole left in New Zealand’s economy when Australian tourists were first barred from entering.

A JetStar flight carrying passengers under the new system departed Sydney for Auckland around 7am, marking the first of 29 flights the budget airline and carrier Qantas plan to operate through Monday.

“Reopening these flights across the Tasman is a very important milestone in the recovery from the pandemic for Australia and New Zealand but also aviation and tourism,” Qantas CEO Alan Joyce said.

In a joint statement, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison and New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern celebrated the long-awaited return of free travel between both nations.

Describing the travel bubble as a “win-win”, Morrison said both nations “have done a remarkable job in protecting our communities from Covid and two-way flights are an important step in our road out” of pandemic restrictions.

“The bubble marks a significant step in both countries’ reconnection with the world and it’s one we should all take a moment to be very proud of,” Ardern said.

But on Sunday, Morrison said a full reopening of Australia’s international border may be a long time coming, as the nation struggles to accelerate its vaccination rollout.

Speaking to reporters in South Australia, Morrison said Australia is in “no hurry” to replicate the New Zealand arrangement on a broader scale.

“I can assure Australians that I will not be putting at risk the way we are living in this country, which is so different to the rest of the world today,” Morrison said.

Morrison, who last week claimed Australia could face in excess of 1,000 COVID-19 cases weekly if it reopened its borders prematurely, also indicated that vaccinated Australians could be the first permitted to travel overseas for essential purposes.

Those travellers could be permitted to undergo two weeks of home isolation instead of hotel quarantine, he said.

“If we can get ourselves in a position perhaps in the second half of the year where Australians for essential purposes can travel and return to the country without going into hotel quarantine, if they have been vaccinated, [that is a] good incentive to get vaccinated too, I’d stress,” Morrison said.

The Federal Government will continue consultations with the states and territories to assess how further changes may take place.

“We’re simply doing the planning work, understanding what the health risks are, understanding how that can be successfully done and in a few months from now, well, we’ll see where we’re at,” Morrison added.

The opening of the two-way travel bubble comes after a combination of supply chain issues, rollout delays, and changing health advice surrounding the AstraZeneca vaccine led Australia to formally abandoned its prior vaccination targets.

As of April 17, 1,496,608 vaccine doses have been administered in Australia – 3.5 million short of the goal originally set for the end of March.

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