Qantas has begun flying international tourists into Australia for the first time since the onset of Covid-19 nearly two years ago.
The flag carrier expects to fly more than 14,000 passengers into Australia this week, following the reopening of the country’s borders to fully-vaccinated travellers this week.
Qantas resumed international flights in November last year, although they had largely been carrying fully vaccinated Australian citizens and permanent residents, as well as those travelling with exemptions.
The relaxation of travel restrictions from today (February 21) means that double-vaccinated international travellers can now visit Australia without needing to quarantine.
Global technology company Travelport said that international flight bookings to Australia has increased by 93 per cent on the day the relaxation of travel restrictions was announced (compared to the same day the week prior), with the UK, India and Nepal accounting for the top three countries with incoming visitors.
Qantas flight QF12 from Los Angeles was the first to touch down into Sydney under the new rules, with services also arriving from Vancouver, Singapore, London, Delhi and Phuket (Jetstar).
The following routes are set to resume in the coming weeks:
- Melbourne to Honolulu (Jetstar) – March 1
- Sydney to Honolulu (Jetstar) – March 3
- Melbourne to Denpasar (Jetstar) – March 14
- Sydney to Denpasar (Jetstar) – March 15
- Brisbane to Singapore – March 27
- Sydney to Manila – March 27
- Sydney to Denpasar – March 28
- Darwin to Dili – March 30
- Brisbane to Los Angeles – April 1
Commenting on the news Qantas Group CEO Alan Joyce said:
“It’s fair to say we’ve all been waiting a long time to welcome visitors back to Australia. The thousands of international tourists arriving this week and many more over the coming months will help kickstart the tourism industry which has done it tough for the past couple of years.
“We’re in this position today thanks to the millions of Australians who rolled up their sleeves to get the jab and give the Australian Government and state and territory governments’ confidence that we can safely reopen to the world.
“We can clearly see from the Australian Government’s announcement that people are very keen to come back to Australia, and we continue to see strong bookings out of the US and UK, as well as South Africa and Canada.”