In case you missed it, the New South Wales government has announced that quarantine will be scrapped for all double vaccinated international arrivals into the state from November 1.
As a result Qantas will now bring forward the restart of its international flights by two weeks to 1 November 2021 after the Federal and New South Wales governments today confirmed borders will now reopen on that date.
Qantas will operate up to five return flights a week from Sydney to London and up to four return flights a week from Sydney to Los Angeles with its Boeing 787 Dreamliners from November 1. More flights will be added to meet demand, if needed. Flights to London will operate via Darwin until at least April 2022.
These initial flights are limited to Australian citizens, permanent residents and their immediate families and parents in line with Australian Government requirements.
Flights to other destinations including Singapore, Fiji and Vancouver are still scheduled to commence from 18 December 2021 with other destinations to restart in the new year – however, in light of the shift to remove quarantine requirements for fully vaccinated travellers arriving in New South Wales, the Qantas Group is looking at bringing forward some additional destinations from Sydney if possible.
Flights from November 1 are now on sale. Passengers who have already booked to travel to and from Los Angeles or London and want to travel earlier can make a fee-free date change to their flight on the ‘manage my booking’ section of qantas.com (a fare difference may apply).
“In just a little over two weeks, Australians around the world can fly into Sydney and people from around Australia can leave on trips they’ve been waiting almost two years to take. We hope other states will do the same once they reach the 80 per cent target,” says Qantas Group CEO Alan Joyce.
“We have thousands of our pilots and cabin crew wanting to get back to work and they will be thrilled at today’s announcement. It will still be a long time before international travel returns to normal but this is a fantastic start.
“Removing quarantine for the fully vaccinated is a sensible approach and brings New South Wales into line with many other global cities.”
All passengers on Qantas international flights (aged 12 years and older) will be required to be fully vaccinated with a TGA-approved vaccine (unless they have an exemption).
As part of government requirements, customers on these flights will also be required to return a negative COVID test from an approved PCR testing site 72 hours prior to departure. The NSW Government will advise on what additional testing requirements will be required on arrival in the coming days.
