As domestic travel begins to pick up, Qantas and Jetstar have announced 300 more inter-state and intra-state flights each week for June and July. Given demand for domestic services has shot up in recent weeks, Qantas CEO Alan Joyce has said capacity will go from 5% of pre-crisis levels to 15% by late June.
“We can quickly ramp up flying in time for the July school holidays if border restrictions have eased more by then,” said Joyce. “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.”
July should ramp up capacity even more, hinged on travel demand and state borders. Qantas Group has the ability to increase capacity to up to 40% pre-crisis levels by the end of July if everything goes to plan, meaning we’ll be seeing hundreds of more services return.
Current returning services include additional aircraft flying capital city routes, particularly between Melbourne and Sydney, and in and out of Canberra. There will also be increased intra-state flights for Western Australia, Queensland, New South Wales and South Australia, as well as Broome, Cairns and Rockhampton.
Qantas will also be going forth with their new service from Sydney to Byron Bay (Ballina), after the route launch was postponed due to COVID-19.
As part of the Group’s ‘Fly Well’ program, Qantas and Jetstar will have ” target=”blank”>
