Out of the holding pattern: Aussie planes return to the sky after two years of lockdown

All headlines this morning will be about the lifting of lockdown, and this one will be no different. After a mind numbingly high number of days stuck indoors experiencing groundhog day it’s finally time to hit the hairdresser, the pub, and hug our loved ones. 

Coming out of this extraordinary period in history has had ripple effects across numerous industries, some having suffered, some having gained, since we were plunged into a series of lockdowns last year. 

The struggling travel and tourism industry will be grateful for restrictions lifting after aircrafts were grounded and staff furloughed during this period of massive uncertainty. Celebrating the return to normalcy is Australian airline, Qantas (ASX: QAN), bringing forward the restarting of more international flights. 

All Qantas and Jetstar staff will return to work in early December- that’s 5000 employees linked to domestic travel, and 6000 linked to international travel. 

The Company is also dusting off the cobwebs from their fleet of aircraft. While originally anticipated to remain in long term storage in the Californian desert until the end of 2023, five A380s are being pulled out to begin flights to Los Angeles and London as early as April 2022. A further three A380s will return to the sky in mid-November 2022, with the remaining five expected to return to rotation in early 2024. 

Additionally, Qantas is expanding their fleet with three brand new 787-9 aircraft due to be delivered from Boeing several months earlier than originally planned. 

Jetstar will pull the remaining 5 of its 11 Boeing 787-8 planes out of storage (currently in Alice Springs) over the next few months as domestic travel ramps up. 

During lockdowns, the airline only ran a handful of flights per day between Melbourne and Sydney despite it being the second busiest route in the world, a sharp decrease from the usual 58+ services they run per day. Once borders between Victoria and New South Wales open up Qantas and Jetstar will provide 18 return flights per day with a view to increasing to 37 by December. As restrictions lift in other states so too will the capacity of the airline. 

Qantas Group CEO Alan Joyce was rightfully ecstatic about the easing of restrictions, saying: “This is the best news we’ve had in almost two years and it will make a massive difference to thousands of our people who finally get to fly again.” 

“We know that Australians are keen to get overseas and see friends and family or have a long awaited holiday, so bringing forward the restart of flights to these popular international destinations will give customers even more options to travel this summer.”

The airline plans to launch a new route from Sydney to Delhi, India on 6 December 2021, representing the first commercial flights between the two countries in almost a decade. Other locations have been flagged in the Company’s international schedule for resumption of flights. Frequent flyers are reportedly booking seats in record numbers, with a record amount of points used on reward seats in a single day occurring earlier this week. 

“We hope that as vaccination rates in other states and territories increase, we’ll be able to restart more international flights out of their capital cities. In the meantime, Sydney is our gateway to the rest of the world.”