FROM THE CEO

When QF12 departed New York with only 76 passengers on 21 March 2020, just after Australia’s borders closed, we didn’t know that it would be the last Qantas flight from the Big Apple for more than three years.

That hiatus will end in June next year, when we start flying our new Sydney to New York services via Auckland. The flights will initially operate three times a week on our Boeing 787 Dreamliners. We know from customer feedback on our direct London and Rome services how well suited these aircraft are for longer international flights. We designed them to have more room and fewer seats than you’ll find on most other airlines. Flying to New York via Auckland provides better connectivity from more destinations in Australia compared to when we used to fly via Los Angeles.

We’re also revamping our Auckland lounge to make it larger and more comfortable, and like all our international lounges, it will feature the best local food and wine.

For customers who’d prefer to fly direct, we’re only a few years away from linking the east coast of Australia to New York and London in a single hop on our new Airbus A350 aircraft, as part of Project Sunrise.

Last month we added Tokyo and Bengaluru to our route map and this month we welcome back Santiago, meaning Qantas again directly connects every inhabited continent on earth, the only airline to do so.

While the restart of more routes is exciting, we also know there have been some operational challenges over the past few months. We’ve put a lot of effort into fixing these issues and we’re now seeing our service return to the standards we all expect. My thanks goes to our amazing people, who have worked tirelessly in difficult circumstances to ensure we get back to our best.