SINGAPORE, 16 May 2024: Qantas Airways is scheduling flight increases on routes to popular Asian destinations from gateway cities in Australia, starting with the northern hemisphere winter timetable 2024/2025 that kicks in late October.
A new route from Brisbane to Manila will be introduced on 28 October 2024, and additional flights are planned for Singapore and India. However, due to low demand, the airline confirmed it would suspend flights on the Sydney-Shanghai route starting on 28 July. Qantas resumed its Sydney-Shanghai service in October last year after a long pause during the Covid pandemic.
Customers can continue to travel to Shanghai and other destinations in China on Qantas flights to Hong Kong with onward connections on partner airlines. Aircraft on this route will be redirected to boost flying to other destinations across Asia with increasing demand or new tourism opportunities.
New route from Brisbane to Manila
The airline confirms it will commence four weekly flights between Brisbane and Manila in the Philippines using an A330-300 aircraft. Reservations for the new service will open this month. The airline last served the Brisbane – Manila route in 2013.
The direct Brisbane—Manila flights are in addition to the airline’s existing daily service from Sydney and will add more than 100,000 seats annually between Australia and the Philippines.
Additional flights to Singapore and India
Qantas will increase flying to Singapore by around 10%, offering more than 2,500 additional seats per week between Australia and the Lion City.
Sydney to Singapore will increase from 14 to 17 weekly return flights starting 11 December 2024.
Brisbane to Singapore will increase from seven to nine return flights per week from 27 October 2024. This is timed to improve connectivity with Qantas’ daily service from Singapore to London, reducing overall travel time to Heathrow by around four hours.
Flights from Sydney to Bengaluru in India will also increase from five per week to daily to accommodate strong demand during the peak holiday season. The extra flights will operate between mid-December 2024 and late March 2025, adding over 12,000 seats between the two cities over the four-month period.
Tickets for the additional flights are available for sale at qantas.com.
Qantas International CEO Cam Wallace commented: “Since Covid, the demand for travel between Australia and China has not recovered as strongly as expected. In some months, our flights to and from Shanghai have been operating around half full.
“That’s why we’ve decided to suspend this route and boost flights to other popular destinations with a new route from Brisbane to Manila and additional flights to Singapore and Bengaluru. This will create more choices for our corporate and leisure customers and make it even easier for them to access the places they need to travel to in Asia.
“We’ll continue to maintain a presence in China through our partners and our existing flights to Hong Kong, and we look forward to returning to Shanghai in the future.”
Brisbane – Singapore increases from seven to nine weekly using A330-200s and A330-300s.
Flight QF051 departs Brisbane (BNE) at 1035 and arrives in Singapore (SIN) at 1645 (daily flights).
Flight QF053 departs BNE at 1540 and arrives in SIN at 2150 (Friday and Sunday).
Flight QF052 departs SIN at 1940 and arrives in BNE at 0530+1 (daily)
Flight QF054 departs SIN at 2340 and arrives in BNE at 0920+1 (Friday and Sunday)
Flights on the Sydney – Bangalore route, effective 12 December 2024, increase from five to seven weekly using an A330-200.
As of 30 October, Sydney – Singapore direct flights will increase from seven to eight weekly, A330-300. A second round of increases from eight to 10 weekly flights will kick in on 14 December.
