Qantas has used donated newspaper ads to push for the reopening of state borders.
The company ran full-page ads in all major metro newspapers yesterday, across both Nine and News Corp Australia, which called on Australians to back its push for state borders to be reopened.
The airline has been struggling throughout the pandemic, with some 6,000 job losses, due to the ban on international travel and heavy restrictions around domestic travel, with state governments opting to put border restrictions in place to slow the spread of coronavirus.
To pressure state governments to relax borders, the company used the newspaper ads which it says were provided without charge to gain public support.
“Show you support for safely opening our domestic borders,” the ad stated. “We believe a shared framework should determine when our borders open again.”
The ad then directed readers to its online petition on its website calling for the “safe” reopening of borders.
“There is huge pent up demand for domestic travel with Australians wanting to get away on holiday after being stuck at home,” the petition reads.
“We want to see Australians reunite with loved ones after months of being separated. And we want to see local businesses, and the one million people in the tourism industry, get back to work.”
Qantas CEO Alan Joyce yesterday told ABC’s RN Breakfast that the petition had received 17,000 signatures from its employees. A Qantas spokesperson told AdNews the petition now has 54,000 signatures.
“Our petition so far has 17,000 signatures just from our employees … and some of our media partners have donated that space in the major newspapers, in the Nine and News Corp newspapers,” Joyce said.
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