Qantas expects to relaunch international flights by October

Australians will have to wait until at least late October to fly to most international destinations with Qantas.

The national airline announced today that it is planning to restart regular international passenger flights to most of its destinations from late October - a four-month extension from its previous estimate of July, which had been in place since mid-2020. 

This date aligns with the expected time frame for Australia's Covid-19 vaccine rollout to be effectively complete. 

Flights to 22 of 25 of Qantas's pre-Covid destinations will resume on October 31, 2021.

Direct flights to New York, Santiago and Osaka won't resume initially, but Qantas says it remains committed to flying to these destinations. 

 Flights to New Zealand are still expected to ramp up significantly from July 1, the airline said in a statement. 

Qantas continues to navigate the impacts of the Covid crisis with a significant half-year loss reported today. Figures showed an underlying loss before tax of $1.03 billion and a statutory loss before tax: of $1.47 billion.

"Our priority is on recovery and repair and we're hopeful domestic border closures will soon be a thing of the past with the vaccine rollout underway," said the statement from executive manager for global sales and distribution Igor Kwiatkowski. 

"We're confident we'll be in a strong competitive position to meet increased travel demand and support our customers."