Qantas plan for restarting international flights

Qantas has been a unique airline to watch during the pandemic, given the extent to which borders have been closed in Australia. While many international airlines (including US airlines) continued to operate in Australia with limited cargo and passengers, Qantas more or less anchored its long-haul fleet and cut its long-haul network. What’s the latest on this?

Qantas postpones international network restart until October 2021

In early January, Qantas opened reservations for almost all of its international long-haul network for flights from July 1, 2021. It sounded incredibly optimistic, given Australia’s strict border requirements, but the company suggests that this represented his expectations for the resumption of international travel.

Unsurprisingly, there has now been an update on this front, as Executive Traveler noted – Qantas has postponed the majority of its international network restart until October 31, 2021. This is based on the government’s belief that all Australians could be vaccinated by October.

Some short-haul international flights – such as those between Australia and New Zealand – appear to resume around mid-year, although that may change as well.

Qantas now wants to resume most international flights in October

Qantas Fleet Plan for Resumption of Flights

It shouldn’t be that surprising, but here is Qantas’ plan for resuming long-haul international flights:

• Qantas still has three Boeing 787-9s on order that are ready for delivery, but the airline is not taking delivery at this time because they are not fully needed; the 11 currently in the fleet are sufficient
• The three additional 787s are needed for flights to New York, Santiago and Osaka, so those flights won’t resume even when the rest of Qantas’ international schedule does.
• The A380s likely won’t be reactivated until 2024 depending on when Qantas believes demand will pick up, but if they recover sooner, the planes can be reactivated in three to six months.
• It also means that for at least the next two years, Qantas will not be offering First Class, as the 787s will operate previous A380 routes, like Dallas and Los Angeles to Sydney, Sydney to London via Singapore, etc.

Qantas A380s likely won’t fly for a few years

At the end of the line

Qantas’ current plan is to resume most long-haul international flights from the end of October 2021. This is based on the fact that the country hopes to vaccinate everyone by then, and this is a four-month delay. compared to Qantas’ previous schedule of restarting flights in early July.

Even when the airline resumes flights, the outlook is bleak. The airline has 11 Boeing 787s and 12 Airbus A380s, but only intends to use the old aircraft for the next two years.

Personally, I think Qantas is a bit pessimistic here, and I think we’ll see the A380s reactivated a bit sooner than expected. Qantas’ biggest markets are the US and UK, and these are two countries where widespread vaccination should also be available in the coming months, and I think travel between these countries will come back in force once borders completely reopened.

What do you think of Qantas’ latest plan to resume long-haul flights?