Qantas slaps down Dan Andrews for demanding airline crew check border permits to stop NSW residents flying into Victoria - pointing out it proposed a better scheme a YEAR ago

Qantas has hit back at Victorian Premier Dan Andrews for wanting flight crews to check if passengers are legally allowed to fly into the state.

The airline insists that is not a job for its staff and it proposed a national scheme to prevent illegal travellers a year ago but was ignored.

The fight blew up after two women flew from Sydney to Melbourne with fake permits aboard Qantas flight QF471 on Monday afternoon while infected with Covid-19.

Qantas have snapped back at Victorian state premier Dan Andrews for wanting flight crews to check if passengers are legally allowed to jet into the locked down state. Seen here is a stock image of passengers leaving a flight from Sydney to Melbourne

Authorities checked the pair's permits when they landed and they were immediately taken to hotel quarantine, where they tested positive on Wednesday. They were fined $5,452 each.

Mr Andrews demanded Qantas change its check-in procedure to verify passengers have the correct paperwork to fly into Victoria.  

'I'm not here today to have a crack at airlines. But I think airlines have been pretty generously supported by taxpayers,' he said.

'It wouldn't be too much to ask them to check whether someone has a permit or not. I would have thought airlines might be able to play that role for us.

Premier Dan Andrews has demanded Qantas step up their check-in procedure to verify passengers have the correct paperwork to fly in Victoria.

The row blew up after two women flew from Sydney to Melbourne with fake permits aboard Qantas flight QF471 on Monday afternoon while infected with COVID-19. Seen here are masked passengers at Melbourne's Tullamarine Airport

'We can't have people who have no valid documents, that don't have that permit, to come to Victoria.

'It's served us well to the point where we have found people who are actually positive with this virus travelling on bogus permits.

'If we need to go further than that we will, and that might just be us having to do even more.'

Victoria's Covid commander Jerome Weimar warned of the threat the two women had posed if they had been allowed out of Melbourne Airport into the city.

'What on earth they thought they were doing, I can only speculate,' he said. 

'The consequences of these two positive cases not having been stopped, being positive in the community and then spreading through Melbourne and Victoria.

'We do not need two more incursions of this type.'

The airline insists it's not a job for their staff and says it proposed a better scheme to prevent illegal travellers a year ago but the state snubbed their blueprint. Seen here is Qantas boss Alan Joyce

But Qantas hit back at the criticism and said it put forward a national plan a year ago where health department officials would check passengers before flights.

'This suggested approach has not been taken up,' Qantas said in a statement. 

'We agree this shouldn't be happening but trained officials should decide who can and can't cross state borders, not airline workers.

'Particularly as travel restrictions vary so much between states and territories that we fly to and are constantly changing.

On Sunday, Victoria recorded 25 new locally acquired Covid-19 cases, more than half in the community at some stage while infectious

'It is not possible for airline workers to check whether passengers are telling the truth in their declarations, as was the case this week.'

On Sunday, Victoria recorded 25 new locally acquired Covid-19 cases, more than half in the community at some stage while infectious.

Health authorities said 21 of them are linked to known outbreaks and 12 have been in isolation throughout their infectious period.

NSW recorded a record 466 new cases on Saturday, prompting a week-long statewide lockdown in addition to Sydney.