Australian Qantas plans international flights from December

SYDNEY (dpa -AFX) – Australian airline Qantas and its subsidiary Jetstar are expected to return to regular international destinations for the first time later this year. The prerequisite is that the authorities plan to fully vaccinate 80 percent of Australia’s 25 million people by December, Qantas announced Thursday. The airline will initially fly to countries with higher vaccination rates.
Flights to places with lower vaccination rates and higher numbers of infections, on the other hand, should not resume until April 2022. “Especially with New South Wales and Victoria locked up, the opportunities for foreign flights may seem far-fetched now. But the current pace of the vaccination campaign suggests that we should have more freedom in a few months,” Qantas said. – Chef Alan Joyce.

Last week, Qantas announced mandatory vaccinations for all employees. There should be exceptions for those who cannot be vaccinated for medical reasons.

Qantas was founded in 1920 and is one of the oldest continuous airlines in the world. Prior to the epidemic, the airline carried 50 million passengers worldwide each year. With some exceptions, Australia’s international borders have been closed since March 2020./cfn/DP/stk

Source: dpa-AFX