Qantas has announced the domestic and international destinations that Australians can travel to as early as 2021.
The Aussie airline revealed that New Zealand and parts of Asia could be on the table.
“Both Qantas and Jetstar are keeping a close eye on new markets that might open up as a result of these bubbles – including places that weren’t part of our pre-COVID network,” said Qantas group chairman Richard Goyder.
“By early next year, we may find that Korea, Taiwan and various islands in the Pacific are top Qantas destinations while we wait for our core international markets like the US and UK to reopen.”
Qantas chief Alan Joyce lamented the fact that the airline is only hitting half of the 60 per cent of flights it projected would be in the air by now.
“This delay resulted in a $100 million negative impact on earnings for the first quarter of FY21 and will have an impact on Q2 as well,” he said.
“Essentially, this is a timing issue. We know the upswing will materialise – just later than planned.
“Importantly, we have the liquidity to manage this.
“Assuming Queensland opens to New South Wales in coming weeks, we expect group domestic capacity to reach up to 50 per cent by Christmas.
“We know that latent travel demand is strong. We saw that with our ‘scenic flight’ earlier this month, which sold out in 10 minutes. And we saw it when South Australia opened to New South Wales, with 20,000 seats selling across Qantas and Jetstar in just 36 hours.”
International travel will be off the cards for a while, says Qantas, so it’s putting most of its eggs in the domestic basket and will be faced with some tough decisions over the coming months.
“As already announced, more than 6000 people will leave the business, with a review of another 2000-plus roles in ground handling underway,” said Mr Goyder.
“Around 18,000 of our people remain stood down.
“The human impact of these actions deserves to be acknowledged. Many regard Qantas or QantasLink or Jetstar as not just their employer, but a second family. I want to pay particular tribute to those who have left after many years – sometimes decades – of loyal service to the national carrier.
“Can I also say, these decisions are about putting the Qantas Group in a position where we can survive, recover and ultimately grow again. They are about preserving as many jobs as possible in the long term.”
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