Qantas to return all Australia-based staff to work as travel reopens

Qantas has said all of its Australia-based staff will return to work and it will restart flights to more overseas destinations, as airlines in the locked-down Asia-Pacific region prepare for the return of international travel. The Australian airline said on Friday 11,000 stood-down workers would return to their jobs in early December, representing half of its Australia-based staff, six months ahead of its original schedule. The airline also announced five international routes would resume service by mid-January, bringing to at least 12 the number of destinations it planned to return to operation by early 2022. The airline normally provides services to a total of 27 overseas destinations. Australia’s rising vaccination rates against Covid-19 have allowed it to push ahead with reopening domestically and to the world after months of lockdowns. It joins countries across the Asia-Pacific region, including Singapore and Thailand, that have touted plans to restart their travel industries in recent weeks. The exceptions remain Hong Kong and mainland China, which have yet to show any sign of relaxing stringent quarantine and entry regimes for foreign visitors and residents. Brendan Sobie of Sobie Aviation, an independent aviation and travel analyst based in Singapore, said international travel would begin to recover in the Asia-Pacific region in the last two months of this year. Sobie said that while Asia lagged behind the rest of the world in terms of reopening to travel, flight resumptions and the easing of restrictions would put pressure on governments to further open up. Qantas said flights to Singapore would resume from November 23, four weeks earlier than scheduled. Flights to Fiji would follow in early December, with flights to Johannesburg, Bangkok and Phuket to return in January 2022. <br/>