Australian Airline Financial Relief Package

Overview

This grant opportunity was announced as part of the Government’s response to the economic impact of COVID-19. The objective of the program is to assist the domestic airline industry in response to the economic pressures created by the impact of COVID-19 by reducing operational cost pressures to improve the ability of airlines to maintain services. The Government has committed up to $715 million financial assistance to ease the costs and charges of operating domestic commercial air services from 1 February to 31 December 2020.  To this end, the Government has announced a series of measures.  The measures are:  1.            Waiver of fuel excise  2.            Waiver of Airservices Australia charges  3.            Domestic Aviation Security Charges rebate  4.            Offsetting the increased operational costs from the scheduled enhanced regional security screening requirements where they are introduced  5.            Providing infrastructure support for regional airport operators to implement the enhanced regional security screening requirements. Details on the implementation of measures 1 and 3 are provided in these grant opportunity guidelines.  Measure 2 is being implemented directly by Airservices Australia and measures 4 and 5 will operate as separate, stand-alone programs. The Australian Airline Financial Relief Measures (the program) will run over 9 months from 1 April 2020 to 31 December 2020. Applicable charges applying to flights between 1 February 2020 and 31 December 2020 are eligible for consideration in accordance with the eligibility criteria and related information set out in section 4 of the grant opportunity guidelines.