Mixed news for flyers from Qantas

Qantas has good news for international flyers and bad news for domestic travellers. 

Post-Covid, the Australian national airline is resuming flights to Johannesburg and Jakarta from Perth, but is cutting back on some domestic routes as it struggles to cope with demand. 

"After a faster-than-expected Covid-19 recovery for the travel industry, we have had to adapt to meet increasing demand and rapidly changing circumstances," Qantas said in a statement. 

"We sincerely thank you for your patience and understanding while we work through what has been a challenging restart for our industry globally."

Qantas says it has deployed extra staff to assist at check-in and manage queues, and made operational changes to improve on time performance. 

All much needed as Qantas has not been delivering over recent months. 

"In the current environment, we know it will take some time for our operations to normalise, but we're working every day to ensure we deliver the level of service you have come to expect from Qantas." the airline said.

The had news is that "the Qantas Group is adjusting its domestic capacity levels to assist with the recovery of sustained high fuel prices". 

That means fewer flights on some routes due to rising fuel costs. 

"Capacity is being reduced from high frequency routes, so the impact to customers is expected to be minimal," Qantas says. 

The good news: Qantas will significantly boost its international network from Perth with flights to Johannesburg and Jakarta set to take off later this year. 

The routes are the latest of eight new international services the national carrier has announced since Australia's international borders re-opened in November 2021.

Qantas will operate the only direct service from Perth to South Africa - taking over from struggling South African Airways - operating three return flights per week on its Airbus A330 aircraft starting from November 1. 

Qantas flights will reconnect Perth with Jakarta for the first time since borders closed in March 2020, beginning with three flights per week on its Boeing 737 aircraft from November 30.