Qantas' international plans to emerge from the “Hermit Kingdom”

As Australia starts to plan for international reopening, its only flag carrier Qantas has comprehensively laid out its conditional plans for commencing services in 2022. Optimistically, "December 2021 remains in reach" for restarting, hoping to catch some of the Christmas peak traffic.

Priority destinations (the "initial focus"), will include Singapore, the United States, Japan, United Kingdom and Canada. New Zealand is also targeted for mid-Dec-2021; a "bubble" temporarily existed earlier this year until outbreaks in Australia disrupted that.

Destinations "with low vaccine rates and high levels of infection" will be delayed until Apr-2022. These include Bali, Jakarta, Manila, Bangkok, Phuket, Ho Chi Minh City and Johannesburg.

Five A380s will be returned to service on Los Angeles and London routes by mid-2022, to "meet high demand".