With Australia announcing this week that it will reopen to fully vaccinated foreign visitors on February 21, Australian national carrier Qantas is planning to resume six overseas routes that have been suspended since the start of the pandemic.
Australia's aviation and tourism sectors have been among the industries most impacted by COVID-19, due to the border closures and travel restrictions that it prompted. Oceania's largest country has remained mostly closed to international travelers since March 2020. Tourism Research Australia estimated that the nation's international and domestic tourism losses since the start of the pandemic now total $72 billion.
But, the Australian government's border opening announcement earlier this week has opened the door for Aussie carriers like Qantas, Virgin Australia and Jetstar to resume international service.
Qantas Domestic and International CEO Andrew David told reporters that bookings for inbound flights to Australia had doubled by the day after the reopening announcement was made. "Bookings are strongest out of the U.S. and U.K., and we've also seen spikes from South Africa, India and Canada, with March, April and May the most popular months for travel," David said in a statement. "This shows how much people want to come to Australia," he added.
To coincide with the policy change, Qantas announced this week that it will soon relaunch multiple overseas routes that were popular in pre-pandemic times.
- From February 16: Sydney-Dallas
- From March 27: Brisbane-Singapore, Sydney-Manila and Sydney-Jakarta
- From March 28: Sydney-Denpasar (Bali)
- From April 1: Brisbane-Los Angeles
It's also adding a new domestic route that flies direct between Sydney and Broken Hill. The airline said that it hopes the new regional route will enable customers to enjoy, "an easy long weekend in the city, and allow visitors to make the most out of their outback exploration," news.com.au reported.
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