Travel Bubble to Cooks

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#2520300 9-Jul-2020 19:30

Handle9:

There is no departure/arrival segregation or rescreening at the domestic terminal. It's a fairly crap layout to do this, even with temporary hoardings.

There's also no biosecurity or customs / immigration facilities.

To go to the cook islands you are leaving/entering New Zealand territory so there are very different requirements.

Agreed there are requirements but I am sure that appropriate faculties and processes can be stood up to differentiate bubble connecting flights (wherever they are to and from) and non bubble international flights. It is a problem that requires and must be solved.

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#2520303 9-Jul-2020 19:37

xlinknz:

Handle9:

There is no departure/arrival segregation or rescreening at the domestic terminal. It's a fairly crap layout to do this, even with temporary hoardings.

There's also no biosecurity or customs / immigration facilities.

To go to the cook islands you are leaving/entering New Zealand territory so there are very different requirements.

Agreed there are requirements but I am sure that appropriate faculties and processes can be stood up to differentiate bubble connecting flights (wherever they are to and from) and non bubble international flights. It is a problem that requires and must be solved.

If you use one international airport/terminal to mix bubble and covid likely flights, no matter how you seperate and blockade, its just a matter of time before cross contamination occurs. Thats why I suggest to use the domestic terminal for bubble, as NZ is a bubble, so we can include Rarotonga in that bubble, and thus that terminal. Mix as many as you like, that terminal is no different to a supermarket we are all in the same bubble

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#2520305 9-Jul-2020 19:41

tdgeek:
Handle9:
There is no departure/arrival segregation or rescreening at the domestic terminal. It's a fairly crap layout to do this, even with temporary hoardings.

There's also no biosecurity or customs / immigration facilities.

To go to the cook islands you are leaving/entering New Zealand territory so there are very different requirements.

The way I see it, Cooks aren't the same as another country. Its a dependency, uses NZ$, you can (and should) take meat there. From a bubble view, if NZ is free of Covid, and Raro is free of Covid, a NZ/Raro bubble makes sense. You can treat Raro as a NZ province, as there isn't the same delineation between them and us, and us and any other country where there is a true international border. And its small, making it less an issue.

Otherwise just forget the bubble its too much hassle. With so many people wanting 100% watertight, a bubble with Australia is a year away. We seem to want 100% security and zero risk

NZ law doesn't apply in the Cook Islands so for air travel it's a international flight. There would likely need to be legislative changes which would create some difficult precedents and immigration problems.

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#2520309 9-Jul-2020 19:48

Handle9:

NZ law doesn't apply in the Cook Islands so for air travel it's a international flight. There would likely need to be legislative changes which would create some difficult precedents and immigration problems.

I understand that. Its a lot easier to make these changes between NZ and the Cook Islands, than NZ and any other country. It doesn't help NZ at all, apart from helping a small country. It will help them a lot, so if they are keen, the hurdles are quite small. Plus the numbers people is very low. But IMHO we can't use a terminal that also uses incoming passengers from Covid-19 countries, thats an accident waiting to happen.

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#2520319 9-Jul-2020 20:31

tdgeek:

I understand that. Its a lot easier to make these changes between NZ and the Cook Islands, than NZ and any other country. It doesn't help NZ at all, apart from helping a small country. It will help them a lot, so if they are keen, the hurdles are quite small. Plus the numbers people is very low. But IMHO we can't use a terminal that also uses incoming passengers from Covid-19 countries, thats an accident waiting to happen.

I agree, just treat CI as a suburb of Auckland, only one way in and out which is via Auckland. Do any passport stuff that's needed at Raro. Or failing that, use Whenuapai or Hamilton, we're only talking 1-3 flights per week to get CI's tourist sector going again.

Too easy to make something simple too difficult

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#2520324 9-Jul-2020 20:40

Whenuapai has a small terminal and has the appropriate facilities to support overseas flights such as to the Cooks. It is used by the RNZAF after all.

Road connections are also good via the North-Western.

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#2520379 9-Jul-2020 21:05

My understanding is the Cooks and NZ govts have already agreed that AKL will be the only air connection point to the Cooks until Dec

Note there is a weekly airnz flight that (outbound only?) Cooks passport holders and resident can use and that work establish that in the other direction without quarantine for essential inbound workers too but I suspect this is now intended to expanded how they will effect it at AKL we shall see!

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#2520494 10-Jul-2020 00:37

Can't they use the Auckland domestic terminal, alongside domestic travelers?

tdgeek

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#2520509 10-Jul-2020 07:12

cshwone:

Whenuapai has a small terminal and has the appropriate facilities to support overseas flights such as to the Cooks. It is used by the RNZAF after all.

Road connections are also good via the North-Western.

Whats wrong with using Auckland Domestic terminal? Its already there. Its not recieving covid potential passengers.

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#2520510 10-Jul-2020 07:14

mattwnz:

Can't they use the Auckland domestic terminal, alongside domestic travelers?

Obvious choice. Its part of the NZ covid free bubble that we all live in, ideal for a Cook Islands bubble to join

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#2520578 10-Jul-2020 09:48

tdgeek:

I guess where the Cooks are coming from is that tourism is everything and NZ has no Covid (crossing fingers) so the risk is probnbaly very very low. I guess they could use AKL Regional airport as the Cooks are a psuedo suburb, so mixing us with Cook Islanders is a safe bubble with a safe bubble

When last I looked we had 24 cases in NZ, one of which went for a unlawful jaunt to Countdown.

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#2520583 10-Jul-2020 09:52

PolicyGuy:

One way to solve the separation problem would be to run all the CI flights to and from an airport with full International facilities and no International flights.
Yes, Hamilton, it's you I'm thinking of ;)
But maybe Invercargill, too

Or, cease flights from & to Oz out of Wellington and make Wellington the NZ Covid-free Pacific Islands Hub. I can't see the Wellington Airport company much liking that, though

I wondered about this too. I imagine lot of the demand for travel to CIs would be from Auckland which has the largest CI community in NZ and the biggest chunk of people wo can afford overseas travel.

I guess it wouldn't be a big ask for people to travel to Hamilton or Rotorua - both of which have been Australasian terminals in the recent past.

Still seems like lot of faffing about and resource diversion for minimal gain to NZ. If it was an option, I wouldn't go. I'd rather spend money domestically and do my small part to prop up our economy.

Mike

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#2520584 10-Jul-2020 09:53

MikeAqua:

tdgeek:

I guess where the Cooks are coming from is that tourism is everything and NZ has no Covid (crossing fingers) so the risk is probnbaly very very low. I guess they could use AKL Regional airport as the Cooks are a psuedo suburb, so mixing us with Cook Islanders is a safe bubble with a safe bubble

When last I looked we had 24 cases in NZ, one of which went for a unlawful jaunt to Countdown.

Ok, we can, with that risk, cancel any travel bubble ideas

frankv

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#2520599 10-Jul-2020 10:12

tdgeek:

It doesn't help NZ at all, apart from helping a small country.

It may not be much for the NZ economy, but it will improve the lives of a number of NZers, so it does help NZ. It would also be good for Air NZ (and therefore the Govt's shareholding), not only filling their aircraft to and from Rarotonga, but also adding passengers on connecting flights within NZ.

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#2520604 10-Jul-2020 10:23

frankv:

tdgeek:

It doesn't help NZ at all, apart from helping a small country.

It may not be much for the NZ economy, but it will improve the lives of a number of NZers, so it does help NZ. It would also be good for Air NZ (and therefore the Govt's shareholding), not only filling their aircraft to and from Rarotonga, but also adding passengers on connecting flights within NZ.

Ok, but clearly here, its too hard it cannot happen. There needs to be no risk, so it cannot happen. So, we just wait till we have no cases in managed isolation/quarantine. Then we assess the risk based on it "appears" not to be in NZ, but apparently testing is low, and its not reliable, so thats no good either. Not my opinions just what I read hear daily

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