Qantas is planning to increase its international capacity ahead of additional aircraft returning to its fleet with destinations like New York, Los Angeles, Johannesburg and Bali.
The Qantas Group is currently at around 80% of its pre-COVID international capacity levels, which has almost doubled in the past year and expected to reach 100% by March 2024, with this additional flying taking it beyond that level from July 2024 onwards.
Qantas has received three long-awaited Boeing 787s in recent months and is gradually able to return more of its Airbus A380s to service as they complete post-storage maintenance, which is enabling flying levels to steadily increase to meet strong travel demand.
The airline is planning to add over 250,000 additional seats to and from Australia. The first major capacity expansion is on the Sydney-Bali route with the airline replacing a large A330 in place of B737 daily flights from October 2023, with more premium seats and fully-flat beds in Business Class. The airline will also increase its capacity on the recently launched Sydney-Auckland-New York from four per week to daily from August 2024.
For the first time Qantas A380s will operate to South Africa on the Sydney-Johannesburg route doubling capacity during peak periods. Qantas plans to increase its Melbourne-Los Angeles route capacity by 20% with more A380s from July 2024.
The airline will ramp its Sydney-Los Angeles capacity from eight to nine per week starting July 2024 deploying a mix of B787 and A380 aircraft.
Commenting on the capacity expansion, Cam Wallace, chief executive, Qantas said: “The additional flying would help support the sustained demand for international travel and provide a boost to the tourism industry. Hundreds of thousands of extra seats on our network is great news for our customers planning their next overseas trip. We know our customers are looking for great value and this additional capacity will put more downward pressure on fares. The additional capacity will largely be made possible through our final two A380s returning to the Qantas fleet following heavy maintenance and cabin improvements.”
Today’s announcement follows the previously-announced one million seats being added to the airline’s network over the next year with new routes, larger aircraft and more flights to popular destinations. The airline will also resume Sydney-Shanghai route in late October after a three-year hiatus and launch two routes Brisbane-Honiara and Brisbane-Wellington in October.