The Qantas Group has reviewed its domestic capacity settings given the decision by the Western Australian Government to indefinitely delay reopening its borders.
As a result, the Group will reduce its planned domestic capacity by approximately 10 per cent from 5 February through to 31 March 2022 as a placeholder. This is calculated on an available seat kilometre basis and reflects the long sector lengths of trans-continental flights.
Though at a fraction of its pre-COVID levels, Qantas will maintain core connections between Perth and the rest of Australia, with up to 15 flights per week from Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Brisbane and Darwin, supporting essential personnel and freight.
The Group retains the flexibility to adjust flying levels depending on demand and clarity on border re-opening in the weeks and months ahead.
Further to the capacity update provided by the Group last week – which identified the WA border opening as a swing factor on its forward expectations – this takes total Group Domestic capacity for the third quarter of FY22 to approximately 60 per cent of pre-COVID levels. A further update will be provided at the Group’s half year results in late February.
Timing to reinstate Qantas’ Perth-London route, which is currently operating via Darwin and was due to return to Western Australia in late March 2022, is under review.
