QF brings date forward

iN AN encouraging sign for domestic travel on the east coast, Qantas will bring forward the relaunch date for travel between Victoria and NSW from 01 Dec to 05 Nov following the speedy progress of the vaccination program in the two states.

“It’s great to see plans firming up for some domestic borders opening given the success of the national vaccine rollout,” Qantas CEO Alan Joyce enthused.

“We’re now planning to ramp up flying between Melbourne and Sydney, which is usually the second busiest air route in the world, almost a month earlier than expected.

“There are also a lot of regional destinations that will open up for the first time since Jun, which is great news for tourism as well as family & friends who can’t wait to see each other again,” he added.

The airline also revealed plans to significantly increase regional flying within NSW from 25 Oct in line with the state government’s roadmap, resulting in a return to around 40% of pre-COVID levels.

However, the news is not as cheery for travel to Western Australia, with Premier Mark McGowan’s tough border stance convincing Qantas to delay the resumption of domestic routes between NSW/Victoria and WA by two months to 01 Feb 2022.

While the airline has restated its commitment to a 18 Dec international restart, its flagship Perth-London service will be temporarily re-routed until at least Apr 2022, with Qantas confirming they are in discussions with the NT Government and Darwin Airport to assess operating the direct London flight from Darwin during this time.

If successful the route would be a daily Melbourne-Darwin-London service, with Melbourne-Singapore-London as the plan b.