In light of Australia’s hard border policy in recent weeks shifting to one which aims to have the country fully open to international travel by the end of the year. Australia’s flag-carrier, Qantas and its budget subsidiary, Jetstar have jumped at the new opportunity, with the Chief Executive of the Qantas Group, Alan Joyce setting out the airline’s plans for an accelerated restart of its international network

On Friday, the Qantas Group made a series of announcements regarding its international network and fleet, in addition to launching a new international route. As well as accelerating the restart of many international routes, the airline group plans to have their whole workforce back again by the end of this year, the flag carrier even outlined plans to bring back its fleet of Airbus A380s.

Following the recent decision by the Australian state of New South Wales to allow quarantine-free travel in and out of the state from the 1st of November 2021. The airline plans to resume international flights out of Sydney to destinations such as Johannesburg, Phuket, Singapore and Bangkok much earlier than previously planned.

Flights to Johannesburg will now resume from Sydney Kingsford-Smith Airport (SYD) on January 5th 2022; three months earlier than previously planned. This route was previously operated by a Boeing 747 aircraft but will now be flown by a Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft on a three times weekly basis, following the retirement of the Qantas 747 in July 2020.

Qantas stated that it is also bringing forward flights from Sydney to Singapore and Bangkok and will resume on the 23rd of November 2021 and the 14th of January 2022 respectively. Both of these routes will be served by Qantas’Airbus A330-200 and A330-300 aircraft. In terms of frequency, the Singapore route will be operated three times weekly, while there will be five flights a week on the Bangkok route.

Qantas budget subsidiary, Jetstar will also resume its Sydney (SYD) to Phuket (HKT) route two months earlier than previously planned. From the 12th of January 2022, Jetstar will operate three weekly return flights using its flagship Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner aircraft.

In addition to resuming previous international routes out of Sydney Airport, Qantas also took the opportunity to announce the launch of a new international route from Sydney (SYD) to Delhi (DEL), India, the company’s first to India for many years.

The new international service is poised to be operated by an Airbus A330-200 and is scheduled to commence from the 6th of December 2021. Due to range issues, outbound flights to Delhi will feature a refuelling stopover in Darwin, however, the return leg from Delhi (DEL) to Sydney (SYD) will operate direct.

Qantas also clearly outlined plans to bring its fleet Airbus A380-800 aircraft back much earlier than planned. The Australian carrier stated that it hopes to have at least one of its A380s back in service by April 2022. Qantas outlined that initially, two A380 aircraft will be taken out of storage.

One of these A380s will go on to operate the carrier’s Sydney to Los Angeles flights, while the other aircraft will return to Sydney by the end of 2021 to assist with crew training requirements. The initial two A380s will be joined in service by the rest of the Qantas superjumbo fleet by early 2024 as more of the aircraft are progressively reintroduced into the fleet.

Meanwhile, the Government of Victoria, home to Australia’s second busiest airport Melbourne-Tullamarine (MEL) has also made an identical announcement today, stating its borders would reopen to quarantine-free domestic and international travel for fully-vaccinated travellers from November 1st.

Melbourne Airport will now benefit from Qantas flights such as Melbourne to London via Darwin and Melbourne to Singapore. Both routes are scheduled to commence from the 1st of November, with flights to Singapore being operated by an Airbus A330, while flights to London will be operated by one of Qantas’ Boeing 787-9s. Jetstar will also operate flights three times a week from Melbourne to Singapore from November 1st using one of its Boeing 787 aircraft.

Qantas Group CEO, Alan Joyce stated it was great to see Melbourne reopening and the decision by the Victorian government to remove quarantine for vaccinated travellers will make it much easier for people to take trips around the world.

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