Qantas Airlines suspends international flights until late October

In an official announcement on June 17, the head of Australia's largest travel company Qantas Airways Ltd said that the current air travel situation "can't get much worse" as Qantas had to scrap international flights until late October. The decision comes after Federal Tourism Minister Simon Birmingham admitted that the international travel in Australia won't resume until next year at a press conference. 

"Should travel between Australia and other countries open up and demand a return, we can add more flights back into our schedule," Qantas said in a press release on its website. However, the airlines noted that with ease of restrictions within the territory, Qantas and Jetstar will increase their domestic and regional flying for June and July with a capacity increase from 5 percent of pre-Coronavirus levels, to 15 percent by the end of June. This equates to more than 300 more return flights per week. 

While New Zealand and Australia government talks have been underway to create a "trans-Tasman travel bubble" that would allow visits between countries, Qantas notified that the intra-state flights for Western Australia, Queensland, New South Wales, and South Australia, Broome, Cairns, and Rockhampton would see a significant boost in its weekly flights. Emphasizing on domestic tourism, Australia’s tourism minister encouraged Australians to take their holidays within the country this year as Australia’s borders have been set to remain closed for some time, and the country cancelled most international flights until late October.  

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We still have some flights scheduled across the Tasman in the coming months, with the expected travel bubble between Australia and New Zealand, Qantas said in a statement.

Group’s ‘Fly Well’ program

Tourism Minister, Simon Birmingham, was quoted saying that the decision to shut the country's border was one of the main reasons Australia had been successful in fighting the spread of Covid-19 and it would not be reopened any time soon for travel. Further, he added, the resumption in terms of open tourist-related travel in or out of Australia remains quite some distance off. Encouraging the safe travel to its customer amid the ongoing pandemic, Qantas said, as part of the Group’s ‘Fly Well’ program, Qantas and Jetstar will have a range of measures in place from 12 June 2020 to ensure a safe environment at airports and onboard aircraft, in the statement on its website.  

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(Image Credit: AP)