As travel restrictions start to ease across the country, Qantas and Jetstar will increase their domestic and regional flying for June and July, Qantas said in a statement today.

The additional services, announced by Qantas today, will see capacity increase from 5 per cent of pre-Coronavirus levels, to 15 per cent by the end of June. This equates to more than 300 more return flights per week.

Additional flights will likely operate during July depending on travel demand and further relaxation of state borders, with the ability to increase to up to 40 per cent of the Group’s pre-crisis domestic capacity by the end of July.

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Qantas provided a state-by-state state breakdown of the group’s domestic and regional schedule, which can be viewed here.

In terms of the schedule, Tara Bennett, CEO of TPDD, said what has been presented is a good and positive start and the onus is now on us to build demand which will increase capacity.  

“Today we have seen the launch of $69 Brisbane to Cairns Jetstar airfares for most of July opening up opportunities for the school holiday period. A welcome step forward to boost numbers in the months ahead,” she said.

Details of the additional flights announced include:

• More services on capital city routes particularly Melbourne-Sydney and a number of routes to and from Canberra.
• Increased intra-state flights for Western Australia, Queensland, New South Wales and South Australia. Broome, Cairns and Rockhampton to see a significant boost in weekly flights.
• Flights will resume on eight routes not currently being operated.
• Qantas to commence flights from Sydney to Byron Bay (Ballina), after the route launch was postponed due to the Coronavirus.

In a statement, Qantas Group CEO Alan Joyce said:

“We know there is a lot of pent up demand for air travel and we are already seeing a big increase in customers booking and planning flights in the weeks and months ahead,” Mr Joyce said.

“We are gradually adding flights in June as demand levels increase, which will go from 5 per cent of pre-crisis levels currently to 15 per cent by late June. We can quickly ramp up flying in time for the July school holidays if border restrictions have eased more by then. Normally, we plan our capacity months in advance, but in the current climate we need to be flexible to respond to changing restrictions and demand levels.

“The one million people who work in tourism around Australia have been really hurting over the past few months. These additional flights are an important first step to help get more people out into communities that rely on tourism and bring a much-needed boost to local businesses.

“Customers will notice a number of differences when they fly, such as masks and sanitising wipes, and we’ll be sending out information before their flight so they know exactly what to expect and have some extra peace of mind.

“Importantly, the Australian Government’s medical experts have said the risk of contracting Coronavirus on an aircraft is low,” Mr Joyce added.