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Qantas aims for July restart of Johannesburg flights
Australia s national carrier Qantas is hopeful it will be able to resume direct flights between Australia and South Africa by mid-year.
Qantas Airlines operated daily flights between Sydney and Johannesburg until March 2020. However, in accordance with Australian government directives, the airline had to halt all of its international flights for almost a year.
REOPENING INTERNATIONAL FLIGHTS
After all scheduled international flights to and from Australia have been banned for almost one year, Qantas is eager to resume operations outside its borders once again.
The airline began accepting reservations for its international flight schedules in January. Qantas hopes to restart its international route network from July.
Analysis
A proposal by Qantas and Japan Airlines (JAL) for extensive cooperation on services between Australasia and Japan would expand the number of codeshare routes they offer and allow faster resumption of international flights in this market, but regulators will weigh that against the increasingly dominant position it would give the pair.
The airlines have asked the governments involved to allow a metal-neutral joint venture on routes between Japan and Australia. This would be a very significant step, as it would potentially give the Qantas and JAL groups a nearly 70% share of passengers in what was a fast-growing international market. They also propose dramatically increasing their codesharing on domestic services and flights from Australia to New Zealand.