As travel restrictions start to ease across the country, Qantas and Jetstar have announced plans to increase their domestic and regional flying for June and July.
The additional services will see capacity increase by up to 15 per cent by the end of June. This equates to more than 300 more return flights per week. Qantas plans to operate additional flights during July, with the ability to increase to up to 40 per cent of pre-crisis domestic capacity by the end of that month.
Which additional services will we see?
Details of the additional flights include:
- More services on capital city routes, particularly Melbourne-Sydney and a number of routes to-and-from Canberra
- Increased intra-state flights for Western Australia, Queensland, New South Wales and South Australia
- Broome, Cairns and Rockhampton to see a significant boost in weekly flights
- Flights to resume on eight routes not currently being operated
- Qantas to commence flights from Sydney to Byron Bay (Ballina), after the route launch was postponed due to the Coronavirus
As a result of the additional flying, both airlines will be standing up more employees to operate and support these services. However, given the Group network remains significantly below pre-Coronavirus levels, the majority of Qantas Group employees will remain stood down.
Qantas and Jetstar domestic change fee and cancellation safeguards
As we reported a few weeks ago, to provide customers with greater flexibility and confidence when they book, all Qantas and Jetstar domestic customers can change the date of their flight once, without paying a change fee. Bookings need to be made before 30 June 2020, for travel between 12 June and 31 October 2020. Customers will have to cover any fare increase (if relevant) for the new booking.
Qantas Frequent Flyers using points to book a Classic Flight Reward seat on any Qantas or Jetstar flight can also change the date or cancel their booking, free of charge until 31 October 2020. Classic Reward seats are available to book across Australia, including during school holiday periods.
We’ll be watching with interest to see how many domestic Classic Award redemptions Qantas plans to release on these additional services.
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