We Are So Sorry To Inform You That Qantas Won’t Have International Flights Until July 2021
I have some very bad news to share with you, and I think it would be best if you were sitting down. Are you ready? It seems that international travel is off the cards for at least another year.
At a press conference this morning, Qantas CEO Alan Joyce announced they were not expecting international flights to resume until at least July 2021.
“We think international will take a long time,” Joyce said. “There’ll be nothing this next financial year, July next year we may start seeing some international services and that will only get us to 50 percent. The following year, only two-thirds of the pre-COVID international schedule.”
He also noted that we should expect it to take three years to get international travel back to 2019 levels.
Sure, we definitely shouldn’t have expected international travel not to resume until next year anyway, but I personally was holding on to hope that it would be earlier rather than later. Such is Covid-19 life.
This does still seem to exclude New Zealand though, with talks of a travel bubble between us and our neighbours still being on the table. Fingers crossed everyone!
In worse news, Qantas also announced they were cutting 6000 jobs across the business, and would continue to stand-down 15,000 other employees until flights return.
What do we do now?
Look, I’m just going to say it, it’s all a bit shit. It’s weird and chaotic and we’re allowed to feel that.
However, it’s not like we’re literally stuck at home. State borders are already starting to open, so hopefully at least our country will get back to normal soon. Which means it’s the perfect time to get a start on all those awesome trips you kept putting off for international adventures.
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Find a really weird Airbnb to stay in, find a new place to spend a weekend away in, head inland, visit pink lakes — honestly, we have one of the best countries to be stuck in. I promise, we’ve got you. Jetstar and Qantas have been ramping up their domestic sale flights lately too, so keep an eye out.
Hell, you can even bring the in-flights meals to you, if you really just need that immersive experience.
(Lead Image: Unsplash / John Kappa)
