Qantas pushes back flight schedules from Queensland, Melbourne and Sydney

Qantas has pushed back scheduled international flights in three states including Brisbane because of Queensland’s slow Covid vaccine rollout.

Qantas is delaying its planned international flights from Queensland until as late as February amid concerns about the state’s sluggish vaccine rollout.

The national carrier has pushed back international flights to and from Brisbane for at least six weeks later than planned.

The first international flights leaving Queensland will now be on January 31 to New Zealand, while the Los Angeles and Singapore routes will open on February 2 next year.

Qantas announced sweeping changes to its international flights on Friday, with Melbourne to London flights also pushed back three weeks because of weak demand.

But Sydney to London flights have seen “extremely strong bookings” as confident New South Wales residents embrace the new model of living with Covid-19.

Qantas CEO Alan Joyce launched the return of international flights with Prime Minister Scott Morrison last week. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Bianca De Marchi

And flights from Melbourne and Sydney to New Zealand have also been delayed because of quarantine restrictions imposed by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern.

“International flights to and from Brisbane are now scheduled to resume around six weeks later than planned with Tasman flights to resume on 31 January 2022 and flights to Los Angeles and Singapore now taking off on 2 February 2022,” a Qantas statement said.

“These changes align Qantas’ flight schedules with the current projections for Queensland to reach the State Government’s 90 per cent vaccination rate target, which is the trigger for quarantine-free international travel.”

The move will add pressure on Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk to speed up her state’s flagging vaccine program.

Only 62.4 per cent of Queenslanders over 16 were fully vaccinated on Friday, compared with 86.5 per cent in New South Wales and 77.8 per cent in Victoria.

Only Western Australia had a lower vaccination rate than Queensland, while the Northern Territory was at the same rate.

Pressure is on Queensland to pick up vax rates. Picture: Getty Images

Qantas said it was unable to run some of its Melbourne to London flights because of weak demand.

“The Melbourne-London route was brought forward last week following the Victorian Government’s decision to remove quarantine requirements for fully vaccinated travellers, however demand for these earlier flights has been subdued,” a statement said.

“This situation is short-lived, as demand on this route from late November onwards is much

stronger – leading to the decision for the restart date to be delayed from 6 November to 27 November 2021.”

The airline will contact customers on cancelled flights to arrange rebookings.

Qantas was expecting to bring thousands of Australians home for Christmas, particularly from London, now that quarantine-free travel was allowed into Victoria and New South Wales from November 1 for fully vaccinated Australians.

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