Prime Minister Scott Morrison says the ban on travel from India will not be extended beyond May 15 and repatriation flights will begin again as soon as the ban finishes.
However Australians in India who fail a pre-flight coronavirus test will be banned from boarding when the rescue planes restart.
Three flights are due before the end of the month.
The government’s controversial ban, which made it an offence for people to try and re-enter Australia after being in India within the prior 14 days, began on Monday and is due to finish on next Friday.
Mr Morrison said the National Security Committee met yesterday and agreed it saw “no need to extend it beyond that date”.
The news will come as a relief to Australia’s 9000 citizens stuck in India, but they will be required to undergo quarantine at Darwin’s Howard Springs facility under a plan set to be announced on Friday.
Capacity at the mining camp is set to increase to 2000 beds.
The Prime Minister’s announcement comes after a fierce backlash against the harsh ban.
“The original decision to put in place that biosecurity order until the 15th of May has proved very effective and it will run its full course until that time without any change,” Mr Morrison said.
“What we will be doing is receiving our first repatriation flight into the Northern Territory as part of the charter arrangements we have … to bring back those first people from India at that time.”
There will be three flights this month to bring back the most urgent cases with 900 vulnerable citizens and permanent residents stranded in India.
People found to have coronavirus in a pre-flight test will be denied the right to board planes.
“Rapid antigen testing is a requirement and a negative test to get on a flight to Australia. I’m sure that’s what all Australians would expect,” Mr Morrison said.
Up to 200 passengers could be on the first flight, which will likely depart almost immediately after the temporary travel ban is lifted.
But the 9000 Australians still stuck in India could face months of waiting to return home with the Asian nation in the grips of a coronavirus catastrophe.
India recorded another grim global world record on Thursday with more than 412,000 new coronavirus cases and almost 4000 deaths.
Mr Morrison said the government did not know how many of the stranded Australians have contracted the disease.
“We don’t have that information. That is why they are tested before they get on the flight,” he said.
Cabinet’s national security committee signed off on the decision on Thursday following advice from Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly.
The controversial ban came under heavy fire from within conservative ranks, the Indian-Australian community and human rights groups after the government threatened jail and fines for people who tried to circumvent it.
The travel ban will end days after a legal challenge is due to be heard against it in the Federal Court next week.
The Federal Court is due to hear Gary Newman’s legal challenge to the ban on Monday, with the Australian man having been stuck in India for more than a year.
The 73-year-old is arguing the orders, made under the Biosecurity Act, are unconstitutional and in breach of an implied freedom to return home.
Immigration Minister Alex Hawke said some of those stranded were in great danger and would be prioritised when flights were approved.
The Prime Minister said no decision had been made about when commercial flights from India would resume and the government would take further advice on that next week.
He also reiterated that the ban “was working”.
“What’s important is that the biosecurity order that we have put in place has been highly effective, it’s doing the job that we needed it to do,” Mr Morrison said.
-with agencies
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