Hello, it's Monday the 27th of September World Tourism Day, not that you'd know it,

and thanks for joining me, Simon Calder, for the latest on travel and destinations from the Green List

and the travel desk of the Independent. Today, that Perth non-stop flight won't be starting before

Christmas after all.

Ireland scrapped its red list on Saturday night.

I've got a bit more information about that change

and plans by UK ministers to give the Civil Aviation Authority powers

to force refunds have been scrapped.

Of course, this podcast is completely free,

as is my weekly travel email. Do feel free to sign up at independent.com.uk

forward slash newsletters.

Qantas started flying non-stop from London Heathrow to Perth in April 2018. I know that for a fact,

because I was on the very first flight. Goodness, it was quite a grueling 17-hour ordeal,

but in terms of getting to the beautiful state of Western Australia, it was an absolute miracle.

And it had been doing very well indeed since then until the COVID crisis.

Qantas has grounded all its international flights.

There have been a few back and forth to New Zealand, but nothing that you'd notice.

And it plans to restart

on the 18th of December which would mean flying from London on the 19th of December because all

the planes would come over here and get here the following day they were hoping to

reinstate the London to Perth non-stop, which continues to Melbourne,

but they have just announced they will not be doing that

...