Qantas is to continue routing its London to Australia flights via Darwin because of uncertainty over the reopening of the Western Australian border and rules affecting transit passengers at Singapore.
The Australian carrier currently operates daily flights from Heathrow to both Melbourne and Sydney via Darwin in the Northern Territory.
Qantas has been using Darwin as a hub since resuming international flights in November 2021 because its Melbourne-Heathrow flights could not be routed via Perth due to Western Australia remaining closed due to Covid-19 restrictions.
The airline planned to revert to operating its Melbourne-Heathrow route via Perth in April 2022, but this has now been pushed back to “at least” June 2022 because the West Australian government has yet to announce a date for the reopening of the state to international travel.
Qantas will also continue to operate the Sydney-Heathrow flight via Darwin, instead of through Singapore, until June 2022 because of testing requirements for transit passengers in Singapore.
Qantas Group CEO Alan Joyce said using Darwin to restart UK services had allowed it to “capitalise on pent-up international inbound travel demand” and praised local authorities for facilitating the move.
“Because of their help, flying between Australia and London has been a lot easier than it might have been otherwise,” said Joyce.