All of Qantas and Jetstar’s 11,000 Australian-based International crew and staff who have been stood down since the start of the pandemic will be able to return to work in December. Previously, this wasn’t expected to happen until June 2022. Let the good news keep on coming …
Qantas and Jetstar will also bring forward the restart of more international flights to destinations from Sydney and operate regular flights to Delhi, the first commercial flights for Qantas between Australia and India in almost a decade.
The faster ramp-up follows the Federal and New South Wales governments confirming that international borders would reopen from 1 November 2021 and the decision by the NSW Government to remove quarantine requirements for fully vaccinated arrivals – which significantly increases travel demand.
Plus, two of Qantas’ Airbus A380 aircraft earlier than planned and is in discussions with Boeing about accelerating the delivery of three brand new 787 Dreamliners, which have been in storage for most of the pandemic.
These decisions – combined with plans by states and territories to reopen domestic borders – mena that all Qantas and Jetstar workers based in Australia and New Zealand who are currently stood down will be able to return to work by early December 2021.
This includes around 5,000 employees linked to domestic flying and around 6,000 linked to international flying.
Due to extended border closures, many international crew have been stood down since the start of the pandemic. Combined with operational and corporate employees already working, the Group’s 22,000 employees are able to return to work in December, which wasn’t expected to happen until June 2022.
Qantas Group CEO Alan Joyce said: “Australians rolling up their sleeves means our planes and our people are getting back to work much earlier than we expected.
“This is the best news we’ve had in almost two years and it will make a massive difference to thousands of our people who finally get to fly again.
“We know that Australians are keen to get overseas and see friends and family or have a long-awaited holiday, so bringing forward the restart of flights to these popular international destinations will give customers even more options to travel this summer,” he said.
Qantas has announced today it will launch a new Sydney to Delhi route on 6 December 2021 with three return flights per week on its A330 aircraft, building to daily flights by end of the year.
The national carrier has also brought forward more international flights from Sydney to Singapore, Fiji, Johannesburg, Bangkok and Phuket.
Flights to Honolulu, Vancouver, Tokyo and New Zealand are still scheduled to commence from mid-December 2021, with other destinations to restart in the new year.
Read on for the full Qantas operational update.
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