LONDON – Qantas said it will resume flights to six overseas destinations, as Australia is set to ease border restrictions for vaccinated travelers.

The airline will also restart a number of additional services from Brisbane.

From 16 February, the Flying Kangaroo will return to its Sydney-Dallas Fort Worth route as QF7, along with the return leg QF8, both operated by Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner aircraft.

Then from 27 March, Qantas will resume its Brisbane-Singapore, Sydney-Manila, and Sydney-Jakarta routes, and the following day Sydney-Denpasar (Bali) flights.

It comes after Australia’s government announced the reopening of its borders to vaccinated tourists and other visa holders for the first time in almost two years. The reopening, on 21 February, will be welcome news for many sectors including international education.

Qantas is also gearing up to restart daily flights connecting Brisbane and Los Angeles on its Airbus A330 aircraft from 1 April.

Dubai-based carrier Emirates has recently announced it will double its capacity on its Dubai-Sydney route, increasing to two return services per day on its Airbus A380 aircraft, from 1 March.

Earlier this month, Emirates had also resumed A380 services to and from Melbourne, replacing its Boeing 777-300ER on daily flights between Melbourne and Dubai, after first reinstating its daily A380 services to Sydney in December.

Meanwhile, British Airways said this week it will be launching its Sydney to London route again in March, after a two-year pause due to the pandemic.

The first flight, BA15, is scheduled to land in Sydney on 29 March and will continue to operate five times per week from then. Services will then increase to daily from 1 April, the airline said.

All services will be operated on a Boeing 787-9 aircraft, or a Boeing 777-300(ER), according to the schedule.