Qantas and Virgin Australia will get support from the Australian government to keep operating some domestic routes.
Qantas said this will see the number of passenger flights it operates increase from 105 per week currently to 164 per week to all capital cities and 36 regional destinations in Australia.
The additional flights began on April 17 and will be “fully operational” by Monday April 20.
The temporary regional network focuses on towns that are more than two hours’ drive from key transport hubs, said the airline.
These flights will also provide critical freight capacity, and much of the space on these flights will be used for mail and other urgent shipments, including medical equipment, said the carrier.
Services will be operated by a mix of Airbus A320s and A330s, Boeing 737s and Dash 8 turboprops.
Qantas said social distancing has been put in place across all of these flights and on-board services will be a scaled back version of what would normally apply. Cabin crew will wear personal protective equipment.