Coronavirus: Qantas ready to go with 850 flights a week

Qantas is preparing to ramp up domestic services to 850 return flights a week by the end of July.

Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce, centre, with chief customer officer Stephanie Tully and Qantas International chief executive Tino La Spina on a Sydney to Melbourne flight on Friday.

Qantas is preparing to ramp up domestic services to 850 return flights a week by the end of July in response to border reopenings in Queensland and South Australia.

The states have indicated they are looking to restart interstate travel from as early as July 10 in Queensland and July 20 in South Australia, leaving only Western Australia closed for business. ­Although Qantas and Virgin Australia have committed to more domestic flights in coming weeks, both carriers made it clear further services would be reinstated only if borders reopened.

Qantas CEO Alan Joyce said he wanted to get aircraft back in the air and employees working.

“Unfortunately we had to stand down most of our staff, over 25,000 people; we had to ground 220 aircraft,” he said. “We were ­hibernating the airline (but) the airline is still there, it’s keen to go.”

The easing of border closures will come too late for mid-year school holiday traffic but Qantas is hopeful of reinstating up to 40 per cent of pre-pandemic capacity by the end of July.

That would amount to 850 return flights a week by Qantas and Jetstar, up from 350 a week by the end of June, boosting frequencies and the number of destinations to which the airlines operated.

Virgin Australia was in the process of increasing flights to 160 ­return services a week, from 76 currently. A spokeswoman said the airline would look at adding more if demand warranted it.

For the Sunshine Coast Airport, which has not had a commercial flight land since March, news of the planned Queensland border reopening was a godsend.

Left off Qantas’s and Virgin’s revised schedules, the airport was sweating on restrictions easing to reinvigorate the local tourism industry, which relied heavily on people from Victoria and NSW, airport CEO Andrew Brodie said.

“The whole tourism industry is waiting with bated breath for that to happen,” Mr Brodie said.

“When it does, the ­capacity will come — but it will have to wait for a period of time to sell tickets. It will take six to eight weeks for the services to return.”

An Adelaide Airport spokesman said the South Australian government’s intention to reopen borders on July 20 was welcome. “It provides certainty for both our team and our airline partners in planning for the return of domestic travellers,” he said.

Mr Joyce on Friday took his first flight in more than three months, travelling from Sydney to Melbourne with chief customer officer Stephanie Tully and ­Qantas International CEO Tino La Spina. They did so to promote the airline’s “fly well” initiatives designed to restore passenger ­confidence in air travel.

Among the measures were the provision of face masks and antibacterial wipes on board aircraft, and contactless check-in, doing away with the need to use a kiosk or talk to anyone. “Flying is going to be different for a while, but we think people will be more comfortable getting back on an aircraft again knowing all these things are now in place,” Mr Joyce said. “It’s a very different process, and we’ve added features throughout to ensure people’s safety and health.”

Domestic travel is unlikely to be followed by overseas flights any time soon, with Qantas’s inter­national services suspended until at least the end of July. However, Canberra Airport is continuing to lobby for Canberra-Wellington flights.