Flight Centre boss Graham Turner says he was surprised to hear Australians would be unlikely to travel overseas in 2021, even if most people are vaccinated against COVID-19.

Australia’s chief medical officer Professor Brendan Murphy dashed hopes of the international borders reopening in an interview today.

Mr Turner told Scott Emerson he was surprised by the comments.

“I was a bit taken aback, Scott.

“I am hoping it’s part of the government’s strategy to underpromise and over deliver, which they have been talking about with this vaccination program.”

Asked about where Australians could travel when the borders re-open, he had two predictions.

“Well look the obvious one is Israel, within a month or so they will have everyone vaccinated.

“The other one which is a bit of a left field is the UK.

“They have had a very high infection rate, and they are also getting a very fast vaccination program. I believe they are hoping to get up to 3.5 million people [vaccinated] a week.

“Providing we can get vaccinated and we can travel to places like the UK and Israel where they have a full vaccination program that’s finally rolled out, they will be two places hopefully we can come back to without quarantining if we have ben vaccinated.”

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