Qantas and Jetstar expand to meet domestic demand

The Qantas Group says it is preparing for continued growth in domestic travel demand, with additional aircraft to be made available for its two brands - Qantas and Jetstar. Qantas is expanding its three-year contract with Alliance Airlines, which provides QantasLink with capacity using Alliance’s Embraer E190 regional jet aircraft. The expanded agreement lifts the options under this deal from 14 aircraft to 18. Of this, five are already in operation with another three to enter service by October. The E190s will be painted in QantasLink livery and are part of Qantas growing its domestic capacity to at least 107 percent of pre-COVID levels in FY22. The first of the 94-seat E190 jets started flying on the QantasLink network last month. The jet’s five-hour range makes it suited to linking regional centres with smaller capital cities. The airline says that the E190s free up Qantas’ Boeing 737 aircraft to be redeployed across the domestic network, enabling the airline to launch new routes and add frequencies. Canberra-Adelaide is the latest route to benefit from additional flights made possible by the E190, with frequencies to double from nine per week to 18 per week from mid-July. Low-cost subsidiary Jetstar’s Australian domestic network is set to grow to 120 percent of its pre-COVID schedule in FY22 says Qantas. To help meet demand, three 180-seat A320 aircraft will be temporarily redeployed from Jetstar Asia in Singapore while international travel in the region faces a slower recovery. These aircraft join the six A320s on loan to Jetstar Airways from Jetstar Japan and up to five Boeing 787-8 aircraft set to operate domestically until international travel resumes. Qantas Group CEO Alan Joyce said “since travel demand started to recover about a year ago, our strategy has been to think creatively about how we use our fleet to add capacity back in, generate revenue, and get more of our people back to work. That’s why we now have 787s flying domestically and A320s on loan from Jetstar airlines in Asia. “Expanding our long-standing relationship with Alliance gives us access to a different aircraft type without spending any capital. The E190 is perfect for connecting capital cities and regional centers. Its size, range, and economics have already let us start seven new routes that wouldn’t have worked with our existing fleet.