International travel is set to remain off the cards for Qantas for much longer than hoped for

Australia’s biggest airline has been forced to push back its international travel date from October to late December 2021.

In a statement, Qantas said the Australian Federal Government has “revised its anticipated timeline for the completion of Australia’s vaccine rollout to end-2021 and its timeline for significantly reopening our international borders to mid-2022.”

In light of these two dates, the Qantas Group will adjust its planned international flights from end-October 2021 to late December 2021.

The trans-Tasman bubble with New Zealand at this stage remains unchanged.

We remain optimistic that additional bubbles will open once Australia’s vaccine rollout is complete to countries who, by then, are in a similar position”

This planning assumption will allow the Qantas Group – and Australia – to be ready to take advantage of pockets of tourism and trade opportunity as they emerge in a post-COVID world.

Qantas said they will keep reviewing these plans as they move towards December and surrounding circumstances evolve.

In the meantime, the Qantas Group will continue to provide critical repatriation and freight flights overseas and support the recovery of domestic travel. The resurgence of domestic travel remains the most important element of the Group’s recovery.