LONDON – After nearly 2 years Australian carrier Qantas has announced that it will be bringing forward its planned restart of international flights by two weeks from November 14 to November 1, 2021. The announcement follows the decision taken by the Federal ad New South Wales governments who confirmed today that the borders will now reopen on that date.
The announcement has been met with much rejoicing and happiness from not just the airline but also for all Australian nationals as the government also confirmed that it would be removing the requirement to quarantine for fully vaccinated arrivals, something which has been already implemented by many other countries around the globe and continues to appear to hold the standard of how things will be reopened.
The initial flights and services will only be open to Australian citizens, permanent resident and their immediate family and parents, however, as Australia continues to allow additional services and routes it goes in hand that the country will continue to start to allow non-residents to travel once again in the not too distant future.
Qantas Group CEO Alan Joyce said: “Bringing forward the reopening of Australia to the world and removing quarantine requirements for fully vaccinated travelers entering New South Wales is a massive step towards life as we knew it. In just a little over two weeks, Australians around the world can fly into Sydney and people from around Australia can leave on trips they’ve been waiting almost two years to take. We hope other states will do the same once they reach the 80 percent target.”
“We have thousands of our pilots and cabin crew wanting to get back to work and they will be thrilled at today’s announcement. It will still be a long time before international travel returns to normal but this is a fantastic start. Removing quarantine for the fully vaccinated is a sensible approach and brings New South Wales into line with many other global cities.”
The airline will operate up to five flights a week from Sydney to London and up to four flights a week from Sydney to Los Angeles with its Boeing 787 Dreamliners with the first flights operating on November 1 when the travel restriction changes come into place. Qantas will continue to add more flights to meet the demand if needed, however, the carrier did confirm that until at least April 2022 flights to London will operate Via Darwin.
Joyce added: “I want to thank the Prime Minister and Premier Perrottet for the leadership they have shown in getting borders reopened again, which is only possible because so many Australians have rolled up their sleeves in record time.”
Tickets for the flights to London and Los Angeles are now on sale, with the carrier also confirming that any customers who bought tickets to fly on November 18 are now able to change their flight’s date for free via the ‘mange booking’ login, this again showing Qantas’ commitment to its customers through what has been a trying year for not just the airline but the global aviation market.
Planned services to other destinations such as Singapore, Fiji, and Vancouver are still being fixed on a return from December 18, 2021, with additional services planned to be opening from the start of the New Year, the Qantas group confirmed that with the removal of quarantine requirements for fully vaccinated travellers that it would look to bring many additional services and routes in from Sydney, as Australia once again although very slowly beings to reopen its borders to the world.
