Qantas announces first international destinations Aussies can travel to
Qantas has shared the first routes it plans to fly to once international travel starts back up again.
The airline announced on Thursday that it was planning for a “restart” as soon as October 2021.
CEO Alan Joyce said there had been a “significant” loss of $1 billion in the first half of the 2020-21 financial year.
“These figures are stark, but they won’t come as a surprise,” Joyce said.
“Border closures meant we lost virtually 100 per cent of our international flying and 70 per cent of our domestic flying.”
Joyce went on to reveal the countries the airline would be flying to as soon as Aussies were allowed to jump back on to planes.
Qantas is planning to resume flights to 22 of its 25 destinations, including Los Angeles, London, Singapore and Johannesburg from October 31.
The outstanding destinations are New York, Santiago and Osaka, and they do not feature as part of the airline’s immediate plans.
Joyce said the vaccine rollout has raised hope for the future of international travel.
“Throughout the pandemic, we’ve updated our assumptions on international travel restarting,” he said.
He acknowledged that a surge of COVID cases worldwide combined with new strains of the virus had made things difficult.
“We’re now planning for international travel to restart at the end of October this year, in line with the date for Australia’s vaccine rollout to be effectively complete.”
He also has hopes for a trans-Tasman travel bubble.
“We’re still targeting July for a material increase in New Zealand flights.
“We’re in close consultation with government, and if things change, so will our dates. But with the vaccine rollout already underway, we’re on the right track.”