Qantas reveals major change to international routes

Qantas CEO Alan Joyce has made a major overseas travel announcement, less than two weeks before international borders are set to reopen.

Qantas boss Alan Joyce has made a major announcement to the airline’s overseas travel plan, less than two weeks before the international borders in NSW are set to reopen.

Fronting media from the airline’s Sydney headquarters, Mr Joyce said a string of flights would resume months earlier than scheduled in an accelerated reopening.

Qantas will launch a new route from Sydney to Delhi before Christmas, and flights from Sydney to Singapore, Bangkok, Phuket, Johannesburg and Fiji will resume ahead of schedule.

There will also be an early return of the A380, with more Points Planes for frequent flyers, and crucially, all Australian-based Qantas and Jetstar employees will be able to return to work in early December.

Speaking this morning, Mr Joyce said the announcement was “probably the biggest and best news that we have had in two years” after the “darkest period in Qantas’ 100-year history”.

“We have gone through an unbelievable 20 months, so it is really great that we have the staff, aircraft and engineers, pilots and cabin crew here to hear this amazing news,” he said.

“It has meant we have had to ground aircraft, stand down people and restructure the business. But there is light at the end of the tunnel.

“It is very clear that because Australians have rolled up their sleeves and taken the jab, we can see that light. We are getting more aircraft back in the air. We are starting more international operations and very importantly, we are getting more of our people back to work.”

The updated international schedule includes:

• Sydney to Singapore flights resuming on November 23, four weeks ahead of schedule

• Sydney to Fiji resuming on December 7, brought forward from December 19

• Sydney to Johannesburg resuming on January 5

• Sydney to Bangkok resuming on January 14

• Sydney to Phuket resuming on January 12

The announcement was made in Sydney this morning with PM Scott Morrison and NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet in attendance. Picture: Natalie Wolfe

Mr Joyce said in just 10 days time, a Qantas 787 will depart Sydney and go to Darwin on its way to London.

“That is the first time since March of last year that Qantas has operated long haul international regular services,” he said.

Mr Joyce also announced a string of new updates.

“Firstly, we are announcing that our flagship aircraft, the A380, will come forward and the first one will arrive back in Australia on 25 December. A great Christmas present for our people,” said.

“We will have a second one in place so that by April we can start Sydney-LA again, a daily service with the A380. Only three months ago we were planning to keep those aircraft in the desert until December 23.

“That’s how fast things are moving and how optimistic we are about the demand that we are bringing two of them forward into April of next year, one of them based before Christmas for training of our crew.”

Mr Joyce also confirmed Qantas was bringing forward the start date of five important markets. They include bringing forward Singapore operations from Sydney to late November, services to Fiji to early December and services to Johannesburg in South Africa to early January, and to Phuket and Bangkok to the middle of January.

“Some of those services are being brought forward by over three months,” Mr Joyce said.

He confirmed Qantas was also “in dialogue” with the Indonesian government about “opening up Bali for Australians that are fully vaccinated so that they don’t have to go into quarantine”.

If successful, it would mean Aussies could jet to Bali before Christmas.

“We are also very importantly announcing that we are starting a new service from Sydney to Darwin to Delhi. This is the first time in 10 years that Qantas has gone back into the Indian market,” Mr Joyce said.

Mr Joyce was joined by Prime Minister Scott Morrison and NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet for the announcement, with the PM describing it as a “wonderful day” which showed “Australia is ready for takeoff”.

Mr Morrison also hinted that similar major travel announcements would be made by Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews and the Premier of Tasmania Peter Gutwein today.

The airline announced earlier this month it would be resuming certain international routes from November 1, with routes from Sydney to London and Los Angeles the first to take off.

On Thursday, Mr Joyce discussed the “terrible” decisions the airline had been forced to make to keep Qantas afloat.

“We had to make some terrible decisions, like make 9500 people redundant,” he said at Illuminate, Flight Centre’s annual corporate travel conference.

Dust off your passports, overseas flights are less than two weeks away. Picture: Peter PARKS / AFP.

“I wish I could’ve avoided that, but when you look back on that, there’s no way we could’ve avoided it.

“The company is going to take a while to come out of this, we’re going to have to repair the damage that was done during Covid.

Mr Joyce spoke of the “over $2.8 billion” that the airline has borrowed that will need to be paid back, and the unavoidable measures to be able to do that.

“We had to make that restructure,” he said.

“If there was a way to avoid it, and I racked my brains on it, to try and figure how we could not make that many people redundant, I would’ve avoided it but unfortunately I think it was necessary so we can grow in the future.”

Qantas have made a major announcement regarding their international flight plan. Picture: NCA NewsWire Christian Gilles

Mr Joyce also praised NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet’s decision to cut any and all quarantine for fully vaccinated Australians flying into Sydney, an imperative move to get international travel happening once again.

“This is the way the rest of the world is going … we know that it’s only available now to citizens and residents, at least until Christmas, but the intent for the Federal and State Government is to open that as soon as possible to foreign residents as well,” he said.

“We think that will be great to get the international schedule back.”

Qantas CEO Alan Joyce has praised NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet for scrapping hotel quarantine. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Bianca De Marchi

Before Christmas, Qantas will ramp up double daily flights between Sydney and London and Sydney and Los Angeles, and will also begin flying to Canada, Singapore and Tokyo.

Qantas hopes to have all of its aircraft back in the air by July next year, except for its massive A380s, which take longer to get ready.

“Hopefully, this is a one way direction, that’s what the premiers are saying, that’s what the Federal Government is saying, so I’m optimistic about this. We weren’t there six months ago but we are there today,” he said.