San Fran flights on hold as Qantas expands regional network

Qantas has postponed the resumption of its service to San Francisco but travellers can fly to Broken Hill instead.

Qantas will fly two return flights a week between Sydney and Broken Hill from April 8, using 50-seater Q300 aircraft.

Qantas is expanding its regional network to include the outback town of Broken Hill amid ongoing challenges with its international restart.

The Sydney-Broken Hill flights will operate twice a week from April 8, using 50-seat Q300 aircraft.

Currently Rex operates two flights each weekday between Sydney and Broken Hill and one a day on weekends.

QantasLink CEO John Gissing said the services would create stronger connections for the far west of New South Wales for business and leisure travellers.

“Broken Hill is a unique Australian town and as the national carrier, we are thrilled to be adding it to our route map today,” said Mr Gissing.

“We are constantly looking for new opportunities to stimulate domestic tourism and support small business operators across regional Australia.”

The announcement came as Qantas pushed back the date for the restart of flights to San Francisco, initially intended to resume this month.

Sydney-San Francisco flights have been rescheduled to July 29, while no firm date has been set for services out of Brisbane and Melbourne.

Poor demand was believed to be behind the move, with most Australian travellers taking a cautious approach to overseas trips in the pandemic due to the level of complexity.

In a third quarter trading update, Qantas flagged a reduction in its international capacity from 30 to 20 per cent, despite standing up all staff in December.

The decision was attributed to “increased travel restrictions in countries like Japan, Indonesia and Thailand” although services to London, Delhi, Johannesburg, LA and Vancouver continued to perform well.

Demand for domestic travel was also on the rebound following the peak of the Omicron outbreak last month, prompting the latest addition to the Qantas network.

Broken Hill regional council mayor Tom Kennedy said the flights would provide the local community with additional choice and flexibility.

“I think the community will be very excited to see the arrival of Qantas and to see some competition in the local market,” said Mr Kennedy.

“Air travel is of vital importance to our community for tourism, health, and education, and I’d like to thank Qantas for providing locals with more options and more flexibility by offering their services out of Broken Hill.”

Rex was not so enamoured with the idea of competition on Broken Hill routes, with deputy chairman John Sharp declaring the Qantas was aimed at putting the smaller carrier out of business.

“Broken Hill has always been a single airline market, because the market’s not big enough to justify more than one operator,” said Mr Sharp.

“Qantas can’t make a profit on these small routes, there’s no possibility of them making a profit on these small routes and their only purpose is to punish Rex by attacking us in our regional market and trying to force us to retreat from the domestic airline business by undermining us in our traditional business.”

It was estimated that about 28,000 people a year flew in and out of Broken Hill.

Since the pandemic erupted, Qantas has added 52 new domestic and regional routes as other parts of its network were mothballed.

Fares to Broken Hill will start from $189 one way on sale until February 21, jumping to $269 beyond that date.

Rex fares on the route began from $199 one way.