Airlines restoring flights faster than planned to meet demand
- Seats on international flights are about 90 per cent full, and daily services between Sydney and London via Singapore on superjumbo are fully booked for weeks
- ‘There’s massive demand. If I could get more aircraft into the air, I’d be doing it tomorrow,’ Qantas CEO said
Airlines are restoring flights that were suspended during the pandemic to meet surging demand as travel restrictions are dismantled. While the jump in demand, higher oil prices and worker shortages have caused fares to rise recently, that has not deterred people from flying.
Qantas Airways is restoring its international flights faster than planned to handle the stunning rebound in travel.
Seats on international flights are about 90 per cent filled, and daily services between Sydney and London via Singapore on Airbus SE’s A380 superjumbo are fully booked across all classes for the next few weeks, Stephanie Tully, Qantas’s chief customer officer, said. Tully was in Singapore for the reopening of the airline’s first-class lounge
at Changi Airport’s Terminal 1, which was closed in March 2020 as the pandemic crippled global aviation.
“Demand is incredibly strong,” Tully said. “We’ve had to bring back aircraft faster than we planned to meet that demand. And there’s a lot of pent-up demand not just for holidays, but also pent-up business demand. We’re confident that demand is just going to keep growing.”
Qantas expects to increase capacity to 70 per cent of pre-pandemic levels by end-September and be back at 100 per cent of by the end of the year, Tully said.