Brisbane travellers can hop aboard a direct flight to Japan again with the resumption of thrice-weekly Qantas Brisbane-Tokyo services from 1 December 2022, marking the first non-stop connection from the Sunshine State to Japan since the pandemic.
Qantas will fly three times a week between Brisbane Airport (BNE) and Tokyo’s Haneda Airport, boosting one of the Sunshine State’s most lucrative tourism markets.
Brisbane Airport Executive General Manager of Aviation Ryan Both said the resumption of non-stop flights from Tokyo to Brisbane will open up this pipeline to support jobs and the local tourism industry.
The route was secured under the $200 million joint State Government and industry Attracting Aviation Investment Fund, which was created to boost Queensland’s tourism sector.
Queensland Tourism Minister Stirling Hinchliffe said the start of the Qantas flights was an important milestone for Brisbane and the state.
“Pre-COVID-19, for the year ended December 2019, Japan represented the third-largest market by expenditure and fourth-largest by visitation to Queensland,” he said.
“In 2019, Japanese visitors totalled about 219,000, generating $459.7 million in overnight expenditure and an average length of stay of 15.8 days.”
Qantas International CEO Andrew David says the launch of the flights between Haneda and Brisbane will entice more visitors to the Sunshine State.
“Qantas is the first airline to operate commercial scheduled flights between Haneda and Brisbane and forward bookings are tracking well, in particular for the upcoming Australian holiday period,” he said.
After the announcement that border restrictions were lifting on 11 October, Japan is trending strongly with Australian travellers with 38 per cent indicating they were keen to visit the country in the next six months.
The new Qantas services are set to begin on Thursday 1 December on Airbus A330-300 aircraft, departing from Brisbane to Tokyo on Monday, Thursday and Saturday at 11:50am.
To find out more, visit qantas.com/au
