Six passengers from the hantavirus-stricken MV Hondius will board a flight bound for Australia on Thursday evening after the Albanese Government secured a plane and flight crew willing to quarantine in Perth.

Their return after disembarking the cruise ship in the Canary Islands had been delayed while Australian authorities scrambled to find a crew and a country which would accommodate a refuelling stop on their way home.

The passengers — four Australian citizens, one permanent resident and one New Zealander — were instead diverted to the Netherlands and placed in hotel quarantine. They are expected to board the Perth-bound flight at 5.30pm AEST on Thursday.

They will land at RAAF Base Pearce on Friday before being transferred 7km to the $400 million Bullsbrook quarantine centre, which was built during the COVID pandemic.

The passengers and crew will isolate at the facility for three weeks and undergo continuous testing before an assessment is made about plans for the remainder of the 42-day incubation period.

Australia’s strategy is much harsher than that of other nations, which have opted to put returning citizens into managed quarantine arrangements in either a hotel, hospital or dedicated centre for two or three days before sending them home to isolate.

The travellers were among 147 people on board the MV Hondius when a rare case of the Andes strain of hantavirus was detected in Johannesburg on May 2 after a British passenger was evacuated after falling ill.

It came after a 70-year-old Dutch man fell ill on April 6, just five days after the ship departed from Argentina, and died on board.

The virus is usually spread by rodents but is also transmittable person-to-person in rare cases of close contact.

Speaking in Canberra on Thursday, Federal Health Minister Mark Butler said he and Australian officials were receiving regular advice from the World Health Organisation.

“That aircraft is due to land at 4pm AEST in the Netherlands, due to take off from the Netherlands at about 5.30pm today. It will land in Perth sometime tomorrow,” he said.

“Obviously, Foreign Affairs and Trade have also secured all of the necessary clearances and approvals to travel from the Netherlands to Perth.

“The six passengers are still in good health. They have all tested negative for hantavirus and are showing no symptoms as well.

“So we’re pretty confident they’re getting on to the plane without the virus — certainly without symptoms — but they’ll be subject to testing when they arrive in Australia.

“All passengers and crew members will travel this flight for its duration in full PPE, there are very strict conditions about the flight, about the landing and about the quarantine arrangements at Bullsbrook.

“At the moment, the first three weeks will be done at a centre to manage quarantine. We’ll be taking some advice towards the end of that three weeks about what happens for the remainder of the 42 days.

“Australians can have very high confidence that we are doing everything to ensure that this repatriation of those six passengers is undertaken completely safely.

“As I said, one of the strongest responses you’ll see anywhere in the world.”

Staff from the National Critical Care and Trauma Response Centre, which has its headquarters in Darwin, have already travelled to the Bullsbrook facility to assist with 24/7 care.

Each of the 500 self-contained single units at Bullsbrook includes a bathroom, air conditioning, television, internet access, and a small kitchenette with a microwave and fridge.

The Commonwealth-owned facility has only been used once, during a bushfire evacuation, since it was completed in 2022.

In Tuesday’s Federal Budget, it was revealed the WA centre and a similar one near Melbourne were costing taxpayers $9.3 million, even while empty.

Funding for “baseline property and care maintenance” formed part of the Finance Department’s request for an extra $92.9 million over five years.