From this morning Air New Zealand transtasman flights from February 28 are not accompanied with a warning that a MIQ spot is required.
This morning a one-way flight from Melbourne or Sydney to Auckland set travellers back about $398.
Flights prior to then still require MIQ unless transiting.
Ardern is expected to announce tentative dates for a five-stage plan to reopen the border reopening.
Vaccinated Kiwis returning from Australia will be allowed to self-isolate from February 28 and that will then be extended to New Zealand citizens in other countries from March.
Non-citizens with visas will be able to also avoid MIQ from April and in July non-citizens from visa-waiver countries such as Australia, the USA, and the UK will be allowed in.
'Floods' of people will come home
Flight Centre boss David Coombes told Newstalk ZB there would be a flood from Australia when New Zealand opened its borders to them.
"There will absolutely be a flood from Australia. We saw that last time. It's a little bit deja vu isn't it?"
Coombes said he was also expecting another massive flood of people into the country when New Zealand eventually opened up its borders to the rest of the world.
"We are still talking about Kiwis being able to return home, but what about people whose families live overseas. We have a huge amount of expats who live in New Zealand and just being able to get out and explore the world again," he told Mike Hosking.
Coombes said flights could get up and running pretty quickly, but the bigger question for
him was why people returning still have to self-isolate.
"If you are vaccinated and you've been tested and you are coming into the country then you are less of a risk than a whole bunch of Kiwis wandering around with Omicron that we are not aware of right now."
Opening the borders to those Kiwis who wanted to come back and were prepared to self-isolate was a step in the right direction, but it didn't help industries or Kiwis wanting to reconnect with family overseas, he said.
Last November's plan to reopen the borders in a staged approach from mid-January was put on hold shortly before Christmas, as Omicron proliferated overseas.
On December 21, the start date was pushed out to late February but that was under review, depending on Omicron.
Stranded Kiwis have told the Herald they are now nervous about getting their hopes up because there are no guarantees the rules want change again.
Announcement will relieve the MIQ bottleneck
The PM said yesterday that decisions on the border would soon relieve the bottleneck of managed isolation.
MIQ was activated almost two years ago and demand for it had skyrocketed.
The system caused increasing headaches for the Government, with pregnant TV journalist Charlotte Bellis the latest of a string of Kiwis in tricky situations struggling to get home.
Bellis has confirmed she will return to New Zealand in early March to give birth to her baby girl, after accepting an emergency spot in MIQ.
At a press conference yesterday, Ardern said there would be multiple people in distressing situations struggling with MIQ - but on the flipside, the system had saved lives.
Asked about other pregnant women struggling to get home, Ardern said an emergency allocation system existed.
But she added: "What is going to make the biggest difference here is not having to rely on MIQ in the same way."
Home isolation still critical
Public health expert Dr Matt Hobbs said the timing of any home isolation scheme was of more importance than details of the scheme's operation.
That was because New Zealand seemed to still be in the early stages of the Omicron outbreak.
"The Omicron outbreak is going to evolve and we haven't seen the rapid spike in cases yet," said Hobbs, from the University of Canterbury School of Health Sciences.
He said New Zealand was in the "stamp it out" first phase of the pandemic response, or asymptomatic transmission was happening but not being officially recorded.
Hobbs said despite criticism directed at MIQ, the hotel isolation network was preventing hundreds of cases entering the community every week.
"MIQ's actually still serving its purpose and obviously it's going to change at some point."
Hobbs said it was crucial to take a long view of the Covid-19 pandemic, even beyond Omicron.
"This won't be the last variant. There is no guarantee the next one is going to be less severe."
He said the Government had a tricky job.
"It's going to be quite a challenge to get the decision right."
Previously, the plan was for people from Australia to be allowed to isolate at home for seven days after January 16, and those from other countries from February 13.
All fully vaccinated foreign travellers would have been able to travel from April 30.
Boosters to be given after three months
Today's border news will also follow a move to shorten the gap between second vaccine doses and boosters from four months to three.
Ardern made the booster announcement in Wellington yesterday alongside Ministry of Health chief science adviser Professor Ian Town, Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins and director general of health Dr Ashley Bloomfield.
Hipkins said the new three-month interval would apply from this Friday.
Town said a three-month gap should help ensure immunity greatly improved before widespread Omicron community transmission.
Bloomfield said some immunocompromised people who'd already had a third dose could get a fourth dose, which would qualify for them as a booster shot.
The new waiting time for boosters mirrors what some states in Australia have already implemented.
