Industry welcomes Qantas expansion of services

 THE RECENT announcement that Qantas will speed up its timetable for the resumption of flights to a number of markets over the next three months is a further positive sign for Australia’s tourism industry, according to the Australian Toruism Export Council (ATEC).

“This is another strong sign that Australia is on the path to reopening, giving hope to thousands of tourism businesses who have been left without an income since March 2020,” ATEC managing director Peter Shelley said.

Flights from Sydney to Singapore, Bangkok, Phuket, Johannesburg and Fiji will resume ahead of schedule from as early as November 23 for Singapore, and throughout December and January for the other destinations.  Also very encouraging was the announcement from the Prime Minister that there could also be a quarantine-free Singapore travel bubble opening up very soon, Mr Shelley said.

“While this move is about getting Australians back home and families back together, it will also help the industry to open up and fine tune services for the resumption of full-scale travel," he said.

“We congratulate Qantas on their leadership and the Australian community on their uptake in vaccinations which has helped to get us to this point earlier than expected and look forward to announcements by the Federal Government on the date we can welcome back international travellers."

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