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Qantas has suspended all scheduled passenger flights from London Heathrow to Australia until the end of October 2020 at the earliest.
Qantas does not expect to operate any scheduled international passenger flights, except for New Zealand, until the end of October.
This follows comments by the Australian Federal Government that it does not expect to reopen its borders to international travel until 2021.
Australia, and New Zealand, have been relatively successful at containing the outbreak of COVID-19.
However, after declaring no active cases of COVID-19, New Zealand now has three active cases, all from international air travellers returning to the country. Recently reported cases in the Australian state of Victoria are also due to returning international travellers.
This will make all countries extremely cautious about lifting travel restrictions, and requiring strict adherence to rules on quarantine for arriving passengers.
Qantas has operated special repatriation flights from London Heathrow to Perth. These were suspended in early June after the Australian Federal Government ended funding for these flights.
Qantas’ original plan following the outbreak of COVID-19 was to operate twice daily flights from London Heathrow to Melbourne and Sydney, via Perth non-stop, with Boeing 787-9 aircraft, with the latter replacing its daily Airbus A380 service to Sydney via Singapore. This is likely to be the case when Qantas eventually resumes flights from London.
For passengers with bookings, guidance on refunds and rebooking flights is available from Qantas.
