Qantas will bypass Perth on its flagship non-stop flights from Australia to London (scheduled to resume in December) and will fly from Darwin instead—or failing that, via Singapore.
Western Australia’s reluctance to open up its borders to Australia’s eastern states – or beyond – clinched the decision for Qantas. Premier Mark McGowan’s stance on border closures is tremendously popular in WA but as an international airline, Qantas can’t live with it. The decision on whether the Perth substitute will be Darwin or Singapore will be announced in a week or two.
Qantas expects its international flights to gradually restart from 18 December 2021 onwards when Australia should have reached National Cabinet’s ‘Phase C’ vaccination threshold of 80%.
The Qantas flagship Perth-London service will be rerouted until at least April 2022 “due to the latest WA border settings and assumptions”, the carrier has confirmed.
Nothing is certain in the world of pandemic predictions and air travel. Last week, Tourism Minister Dan Tehan said he hoped Australia’s international borders would reopen by Christmas “at the latest”. That’s too late for many international airlines, which have got fed up with the indecision, border closures and quarantine orders and have voted with their wings – the aviation equivalent of voting with their feet – and have quit Australia.
Before the pandemic, 52 international airlines served Australia. Now there are just 18.
“At this stage, WA doesn’t intend to open to international travel until sometime next year, so we’ll unfortunately have to temporarily move our Perth-London service until at least April 2022,” Qantas chief executive, Alan Joyce, stated yesterday.
“Instead of operating from Melbourne to Perth and then on to London as it usually does, this flight will operate from Melbourne to London via either Darwin or Singapore, depending on conversations we’re having with the NT in the coming weeks. We look forward to operating this flight via Perth again when circumstances allow.”
The airline has successfully used Darwin as a hub for its repatriation flights to various destinations across Europe, Asia and the Middle East over the past 12 months.
The feasibility of mounting a daily Melbourne-Darwin-London service depends on the logistics of domestic and international transit under the current NT Government Plan for Covid-Management at Stage 3 of the National Plan. If the service can’t operate through Darwin, it will instead fly Melbourne-Singapore-London until at least April 2022. A decision on the exact routing is likely to be made within the next two weeks.
“The pace of the vaccine rollout means we’re still on track for international flying to restart from 18 December onwards,” Joyce said.
“People are clearly keen to travel. We saw a 175% spike in web searches in the week after we announced our plans and we’ve seen strong bookings for December and January for our flights to London, Los Angeles and Singapore in particular.
“The key factor in determining the ongoing demand level for international flying will be what the quarantine arrangements are for Australians when they return. The seven-day home quarantine trial in New South Wales is a great step forward and we’re hoping the system evolves quickly for vaccinated travellers from low-risk countries to not have to quarantine on arrival, particularly given Australia itself is on track to have one of the highest vaccination rates in the world. That’s fast becoming the standard between many countries overseas.”
Qantas has announced changes on the domestic front too. The key ones are:
- Bringing forward the reopening date for travel between Victoria and New South Wales from 1 December to 5 November 2021, based on Victoria’s reopening plan.
- Significantly increasing regional flying within New South Wales from 25 October 2021, in line with the State Government’s roadmap, to around 40 per cent of pre-Covid levels.
- Delaying the restart of domestic flying between Western Australia and Victoria / New South Wales by two months to 1 February 2022, based on border assumptions.
Non-stop Australia-London on the Qantas Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner
Qantas will continue to operate five return flights a week between Perth and both Sydney and Melbourne to maintain minimum connections for those with permits to travel.
There is no change to Qantas or Jetstar flights between WA, Tasmania, Northern Territory and South Australia. Flights between WA and Queensland will increase once border restrictions are removed, “hopefully in coming weeks”, Qantas says.
“It’s great to see plans firming up for some domestic borders opening given the success of the national vaccine rollout,” Joyce said.
“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 June, which is great news for tourism as well as family and friends who can’t wait to see each other again.
“Get ready to see some emotional reunions at airports from late-October onwards.
“Based on our discussions with Western Australia we know their borders won’t be open to New South Wales and Victoria until early next year, so we’ve sadly had to cancel the flying we had planned on those routes in the lead-up to Christmas. We will maintain a minimum service for people with permits to travel, though, as we have throughout the pandemic.”
Joyce said the reason Qantas was putting a lot of sale fares in the market as more domestic destinations open up “is to help fast track the recovery by stimulating demand and getting our people back to work sooner.
“Jetstar sold thousands of $20 fares from Melbourne to Sydney, Byron Bay and Newcastle within hours of going on sale this week,” he said.
“This is good news for the tourism industry, which has taken such a huge hit throughout the crisis.”
Should State or Federal roadmaps change, and flights are cancelled, customers may be eligible for a refund, credit voucher or to change the date of their travel. Further details are available on Qantas and Jetstar’s websites.
More than 400,000 fully vaccinated Australians have so far claimed their vaccination reward and gone into the draw for eight prizes of a year’s worth of flights, accommodation and fuel. Almost three quarters have chosen 1000 Qantas Points as their reward, adding almost 300 million points to frequent flyers’ accounts. The rewards are open to Australians who are fully vaccinated by the end of the year.
International flights remain subject to Government and Regulatory approval.
Written by Peter Needham
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