From 31 March 2019, the national carrier will boost capacity on key routes in Queensland offering more than 2600 additional seats per week compared with the same time this year.
Eleven additional return flights will be added each week between Brisbane and Cairns.
Qantas will extend the use of larger Airbus A330s on selected flights from Cairns to Sydney and Melbourne. These aircraft offer 28 premium business seats dubbed ‘mini First Class’ by some frequent flyers, with fast, free wi-fi rolling out across the fleet.
Weekday flights between Sydney and Sunshine Coast will increase from daily to double daily, with the total weekly return flights increasing from 8 to 13.
Weekday flights between Brisbane and Mount Isa to return to a double-daily service in response to community feedback, operated by QantasLink’s 125-seat Boeing 717 aircraft, increasing the weekly return services from 9 to 13.
Six additional return flights between Brisbane and Townsville per week.
Qantas Domestic CEO Andrew David said the changes were designed to create more options for the growing number of travellers visiting key destinations in Queensland. “We’ve responded to feedback from customers, industry and community leaders by adding more flights and offering more choice on the routes where we know customers want to travel,” said Mr David.
“Qantas has been connecting travellers to Queensland for nearly one hundred years. Today, we service more destinations in Queensland than any other state in Australia and bring in millions of business and leisure visitors every year.
“These additional flights reinforce our ongoing commitment to increasing tourism to and within the Sunshine State.”
From 31 March 2019, QantasLink will also resume daily flights between Cairns and Port Moresby, a route it had operated until 2016. The service, which is operated by a 74-seat Bombardier Q400 aircraft, will complement Qantas’ existing services between Brisbane and Port Moresby.
Mr David said the return of direct Cairns-Port Moresby flights would offer more options for the growing number of customers travelling between Queensland and Papua New Guinea.
“We know there is strong demand for a direct flight to Port Moresby from the Cairns business community. This is also great news for tourism, making it easier for travellers to enjoy a getaway in Cairns,” said Mr David.
Tourism Industry Development Minister Kate Jones said Qantas’ announcement today was a win for Queensland.
“Direct flights are crucial to growing Queensland’s tourism economy and today’s announcement from Qantas is a great sign of confidence in our tourism industry,” she said.
“We want to make it as easy as possible for visitors to access our key visitor destinations like Cairns, Townsville the Sunshine Coast, and the Outback – that’s exactly what more direct flights help us to achieve.
“We’ll continue to work with airlines to secure more direct flights for Queensland to ensure we continue to create local tourism jobs.”
Figures recently released showed the Qantas Group contributed more than $1.9 billion to the Queensland economy last year and supported more than 9,000 jobs.
(Photos Qantas)