QANTAS has confirmed a decision on the fate of its planned Perth to London route in Mar will be made in “the next few weeks”, as the carrier is left scrambling to readjust from Western Australia’s decision to close its borders indefinitely (TD 21 Jan).
Qantas said it was now in discussions with the Northern Territory Government about extending the operation of the alternative Darwin-London route, and has also been forced to cancel its increased flight numbers to Perth through to the end of Apr, reducing its domestic capacity by a further 10%.
Just 15 weekly passenger flights will be maintained to Perth from five capital cities to support essential workers and freight.
Commenting on the WA border decision, Qantas CEO Alan Joyce labelled the move “deeply concerning”, especially the state’s unwillingness to provide a reopening date which he said was “real blow” to Australian travel.
“The rest of the country is focused on getting through this but WA is still playing for time… the question is, what will it take for them to open – it’s very hard, as a business, to deal with this level of uncertainty,” Joyce said.
QF said its Perth to Rome services will go ahead as planned in late Jun, subject to further border decisions.
Analysts at Macquarie Bank have estimated that the overall impact of the Omicron variant on Qantas will amount to $1.4 billion.
The post Perth/London doubts appeared first on Travel Daily.
Source: traveldaily