The Qantas Airways Limited (ASX: QAN) share price is on watch today after the airline revealed that its planes are going to get back into the air sooner to various destinations.
Qantas back in the sky
Qantas announced that based on today’s announcement, all Australian-based Qantas and Jetstar employees are able to return to work in early December 2021. It’s bringing forward the restart of more international flights to popular destinations from Sydney.
New flights
Qantas is planning to launch a new route from Sydney to Delhi on 6 December 2021 with three return flights per week with its A330 aircraft, building to daily flights by the end of the year, subject to discussions with Indian authorities.
Quicker return of international flights sooner
The airline outlined various flights.
Sydney to Singapore flights will resume on 23 November 2021, four weeks earlier than planned.
Flights to Fiji will be brought forward to 7 December 2021.
Sydney to Johannesburg will resume on 5 January 2022, three months earlier than planned.
The flights to Bangkok will resume on 14 January 2022, over two months earlier.
Sydney to Phuket flights will restart on 12 January 2022, more than two months earlier than planned.
Discussions are ongoing with the Indonesian Government about welcoming fully vaccinated Australians back to Bali with reduced or no quarantine requirements. If this happens, it will be months earlier than expected.
Today’s announcement is on top of the routes already on sale to London and Los Angeles. Flights to Honolulu, Vancouver, Tokyo and New Zealand are still scheduled to commence from the middle of December.
These initial flights are limited to Australian citizens, permanent residents and their immediate families and parents.
Fleet update
Five A380s with upgraded cabins were expected to return from July 2022, rather than the end of 2023. This has been brought forward again by three months, with two A380s to commence LA flights from April 2022.
Another three A380s will return to service from November 2022, with the remaining five expected to return to service by early 2024.
It’s also bringing forward delivery of three new 787-9 aircraft that are currently in storage with Boeing, several months earlier than planned as demand increases.
Domestic
Qantas and Jetstar said that it’s preparing to ramp up capacity between Melbourne and Sydney as quarantine-free travel is set to resume between the two major cities. Before COVID, it was the second busiest route in the world with up to 58 return services per day. By Christmas, it’s expecting to return up to 37 return flights per day.
Thoughts on the Qantas share price and this news
For shareholders and people wanting to fly internationally, this is great news after a difficult FY21. There may be further good news to come as more borders open.
The airline is also expecting tourists from Singapore, South Africa and India once those borders re-open for international citizens.
Profit could return sooner than expected for Qantas, which is good for investors. I’m not sure how much profit it’s going to make in the 2022 and 2023 calendar years, so it’s hard to say what a good price is right now.
I’ve got my eyes on plenty of exciting ASX growth shares as potential investments.
