Qantas has decided to bring forward its date for the resumption of international travel even further, following an announcement made by the Government of New South Wales. The government has stated that it will allow quarantine free international travel for vaccinated travellers in Australia’s largest state from November 1st. Following the New South Wales government’s decision, Qantas announced via a press release that it would be bringing forward the resumption of its international services to the 1st of November 2021.
Prior to the pandemic, Qantas had the largest market share of international flights to and from Australia. To date, the Australian flag carrier’s international network has largely been grounded since March 2020, with only sporadic repatriation flights, cargo-only flights and some international services during the short-lived Trans Tasman travel bubble with New Zealand.
From the beginning of November, Qantas will slowly bring back its international network and will commence with five weekly return services from Sydney to London-Heathrow via Darwin and four weekly return services from Sydney to Los Angeles. Both of these services will use the carrier’s Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner aircraft. The Australian airline also stated that it could increase the frequencies of these services if the demand is there.
Flights to a range of other destinations such as Singapore, Fiji and Vancouver, as well as San Francisco are not scheduled to begin until the 18th of December 2021. However, Qantas stated that “it is looking at bringing forward the resumption of flights to a further range of destinations due to the lifting of quarantine requirements in New South Wales.”
Some international travellers who wish to fly into Australia may still be disappointed though as these flights still need to comply with current Australian travel requirements. This means that flights from November 1st are truly only open to Australian citizens and permanent residents, as well as the families of those people.
The Chief Executive of the Qantas Group, Alan Joyce stated that “bringing forward the reopening of Australia to the world and removing quarantine requirements for fully vaccinated travellers entering New South Wales is a massive step towards life as we knew it.”
The CEO of Qantas added that this announcement was only possible thanks to the millions of Australian citizens who rolled up their sleeves and got vaccinated. Mr Joyce concluded by stating that he hoped that “other states will do the same once they reach the 80 per cent target.”
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