Qantas has announced a further increase to its international capacity ahead of additional aircraft returning to its fleet. While Qantas and its budget subsidiary Jetstar are currently holding steady at around 80 per cent of pre-pandemic international capacity, this number is expected to reach 100 per cent by March 2024.
Three Boeing 787-9 jets have been delivered to the red roo in recent months, with two Airbus A380 superjumbos due to rejoin the fleet following post-storage maintenance. These additional aircraft allow Qantas to add more than 250,000 additional international seats to and from Australia to meet strong travel demand.
Qantas International CEO Cam Wallace said the additional flying would help support the sustained demand for international travel and provide a boost to the tourism industry.
“Hundreds of thousands of extra seats on our network is great news for our customers planning their next overseas trip,” said Mr Wallace.
“We know our customers are looking for great value and this additional capacity will put more downward pressure on fares.
Routes set to benefit from added capacity include flights between;
- Sydney and Bali where the larger Airbus A330 will replace daily Boeing 737 flights from October 2023. Most excitingly, this introduces fully-flat business class on flights to the popular leisure island.
- Sydney and Auckland/New York will increase from four flights per week to daily from August 2024.
- Sydney and Johannesburg will see the Qantas A380 for the first time in July 2024, nearly doubling capacity during peak periods.
- Sydney and Los Angeles where flights will increase from eight to nine per week from July 2024, with a mix of B787 and A380 aircraft operating the route.
- Melbourne and Los Angeles will benefit from around 20 per cent additional capacity, with more A380 flights from July 2024.
The capacity increase follows the previously announced one million seats to be added to Qantas’ network. That announcement included a boost to the following services;
- Melbourne – Los Angeles from daily to nine per week.
- Sydney – Auckland – New York from three to four per week.
- Sydney – Tokyo from daily to double daily.
- Melbourne – Tokyo from four per week to daily.
- Brisbane – Tokyo from three per week to daily.
- Sydney – Shanghai daily A330 flights for the first time in over three years.
- Sydney – Hong Kong daily flights operated by a mix of A380 and A330.
- Melbourne – Hong Kong from four per week to daily.
- Melbourne – Singapore from 10 to 14 per week from 31 March 2024.
- Sydney – Singapore from 14 to 15 per week from 31 March 2024.
- Melbourne – Delhi from three to six per week seasonally.
- Brisbane – Wellington new route to operate daily.
- Brisbane – Honiara new route to operate three days per week.
- Sydney – Christchurch from 11 to 14 per week.
- Sydney – Queenstown up to 14 flights per week seasonally.
