Qantas and Jetstar are to grow their international network out of Sydney, with new direct routes to India and Korea taking off this year.
Qantas will operate four weekly return flights from Sydney to Bengaluru (formerly known as Bangalore) from September 14, using its widebody Airbus A330 aircraft.
These will be the first non-stop flights between Australia and southern India and will cut almost three hours off the current fastest travel time from Sydney to Bengaluru.
Qantas will continue to operate up to five flights a week between Melbourne and Delhi.
Qantas intends to enter into a codeshare agreement with IndiGo, India’s largest domestic carrier, which will give customers improved one-stop access to more than 50 Indian cities.
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The partnership will extend to Jetstar customers who will be able to book connecting flights on IndiGo services through its Jetstar Connect platform on jetstar.com from late April.
Qantas and Jetstar will both launch direct flights to Seoul’s Incheon International Airport later this year.
Jetstar will use the Boeing 787-8 for the three times weekly Sydney to Seoul service which will start on November 2, 2022.
Qantas will begin direct flights between Sydney and Seoul on December 10, 2022, with its A330 aircraft.
Qantas said that since Australia’s borders re-opened last November, the Group has carried almost 500,000 passengers on its international services across 27 international routes, with another six routes restarting next week.
Group international capacity is expected to reach more than 40 per cent of pre-COVID capacity in April.
Qantas has now added six new overseas routes in the past six months, including Perth-Rome and Melbourne-Delhi, Melbourne-Dallas Fort-Worth and Darwin-Dili as it taps into new markets.
Qantas Group CEO Alan Joyce said the new routes would help the New South Wales tourism sector recover from COVID.
“Sydney is one of the world’s truly global cities and these new direct flights to India and Korea will make it easier for millions of people to come here.
“It’s clear that Australia is back on the map for international travellers. Demand for our international flights has rebounded since borders reopened, and that’s giving us the confidence to launch these new routes together with the marketing support from Destination New South Wales.
“The signing of the Australia-India free trade agreement is a driver of travel demand as trade and investment links expand between Australia and India’s population of more than one billion people.”
“Our new direct flights to Bengaluru, combined with the planned codeshare with IndiGo, have the potential to reshape the way many people travel between Australia and India.
“South Korea is Australia’s fourth-largest trading partner and Koreans see Sydney as one of the top tourism destinations. With expected strong business, premium leisure and low-cost travel demand on the route, we see an opportunity for both Qantas and Jetstar to fly on the route.”
To celebrate the Sydney-Seoul new route, Jetstar is offering customers sale fares from $398 return starting today until 4 pm on April 14.
Qantas fares on Sydney-Seoul are on sale from $1224 return and Sydney-Bengaluru flights go on sale today starting from $1349 return.
To reward Frequent Flyer members, Qantas will offer the first three return services between Sydney and Bengaluru, and Sydney and Seoul, as Points Planes meaning frequent flyers can use Qantas Points to book any seat as a Classic Reward Seat until the end of April 2022. Seats on these flights can also be purchased with cash.
