Government-facilitated flights from South America
- The Hon Michael McCormack MP, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister for Infrastructure and Transport and Regional Development, Leader of The Nationals, Federal Member for Riverina
- Senator the Hon Marise Payne, Minister for Foreign Affairs, Minister for Women
The Australian Government is facilitating commercial charter flights to bring hundreds of Australians home from Peru and Uruguay over the coming days.
We have been able to support these flights after holding discussions with Australian travel company Chimu Adventures, which will manage the charter operations out of Cusco and Lima in Peru and Montevideo in Uruguay.
The Australian Government has worked constructively with Chimu Adventures to provide assurances, including indemnity and the underwriting of unforeseen costs, without which the flights would not be able to proceed.
The flight from Lima is fully subscribed and is expected to carry more than 260 Australian nationals and permanent residents and is expected to depart Lima within days, subject to final approval of departure permission from Peruvian authorities.
The flight from Montevideo, which is also scheduled to depart in the coming days, will collect Australians from the Ocean Atlantic cruise ship, which is moored at the port in Montevideo, as well as other Australians in the area who wish to return home.
Further facilitated flights are already being planned for Australians in South America, due to particular challenges with transport out of the region.
Australian embassies in Lima and Buenos Aires are working with local authorities in Peru and Uruguay to ensure all arrangements are in place for the flights to Australia, which has required careful and consistent negotiation.
They are also working hard to provide Australians with up-to-date information through their social media platforms and Smartraveller.
As the Government stated yesterday, we understand many Australians overseas face great difficulty getting home. We have agreed to consider, on a case-by-case basis, supporting commercial airlines to operate non-scheduled services to less central locations for Australians.
We continue to urge Australians who have opportunities to travel back to Australia by commercial means, to do so as soon as possible.