Qantas plans to shift London flights to Darwin

Friday, 27 Sep, 2021 0

Qantas has confirmed it will ditch Perth for direct flights to the UK.

Qantas says it was forced to bypass Perth because of Western Australia’s strict border restrictions.

"Based on our discussions with Western Australia, we know their borders won’t be open to New South Wales and Victoria until early next year, so we’ve sadly had to cancel the flying we had planned on those routes in the lead-up to Christmas," Qantas CEO Alan Joyce said on Monday.

The popular Perth to London direct flight will now likely start in Darwin.

"We’re seeing huge demand for people wanting to go to London, it’s the most sought-after route on our network for Christmas and post-Christmas," Joyce said.

"At this stage, WA doesn’t intend to open to international travel until sometime next year, so we’ll unfortunately have to temporarily move our Perth-London service until at least April 2022."

"We have to go to London, and we have to stop off somewhere. If it can’t be Perth, our preference is Darwin, and if not, we’ll look at Singapore."

Western Australia’s strict border rules have left it relatively isolated from the rest of the country – and the rest of the world.

WA Premier Mark McGowan said the health and safety of West Australians remains the top priority.

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