‘Ticket to recovery’: Australia to offer subsidised flights to support tourism

Australia will subsidise 800,000 domestic flights, help its two main airlines and offer cheap loans to small tourism operators as part of A$1.2 billion ($921 million) package to revive the travel sector, Prime Minister Scott Morrison will say on Thursday.

Tourism is one of Australia’s biggest industries, worth more than A$60 billion and employing about 5% of the country’s workforce. But the sector was crippled when the country shut its international borders in March 2020 to curtail the spread of Covid-19 – leaving tens of thousands of people on the country’s wage-subsidy scheme.

Seeking to prop up the industry when the subsidy scheme ends this month, Morrison will pledge another stimulus package for the travel sector, according to extracts of an announcement seen by Reuters.