Qatar Airways has held preliminary discussions about establishing flights to Mexico City, the airline said on Friday, confirming that talks had taken place with the Mexican government. Mexico's government said on Thursday the airline is interested in setting up the route due to the upcoming 2022 soccer World Cup in Qatar, and given Mexico's major fan base. Mexico's foreign ministry said the two sides aimed to see next week when they would begin follow-up talks on the route after Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard said the airline had signaled interest in flying to a new Mexico City airport. "Qatar Airways confirms it held early informal discussions about flights to Mexico City with the Mexican government and both parties will remain in close contact on the matter," a Qatar Airways spokesperson said. The airline, which earlier this week said it did not have plans to begin flying from the new Felipe Angeles International Airport, declined to say when talks would proceed or to give further details about what was under discussion.<br/>
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Qantas boss Alan Joyce has no doubt what the biggest long-term challenge is for his airline once it recovers from the once-in-a-generation crisis of COVID-19. “We need to make sure that people do not feel they need to stop flying,” he says. Amid increasingly dire warning that humanity is failing to avert catastrophic global warming, aviation has a major pollution problem. Cars are going electric, and renewables are replacing coal-fired power plants, but there is no quick solution for the carbon dioxide jetliners spit out. It accounted for 2 per cent of global emissions pre-pandemic. Europeans concerned about climate change and suffering flygskam (Swedish for “flight shame”) are limiting or swearing off air travel in what Joyce says is a threat to the airline industry. “People have got to this decision: is it protecting the environment or is a flying?” he explains in an interview. “That’s an obligation to us as custodians of Qantas to fix that and making sure people believe they can do both.” Qantas made a major step forward in that immense task last month when it pledged to cut its net emissions by a quarter by 2030 from 2019 levels, and laid out a pathway to net zero in 2050. There are three key elements, starting with buying new aircraft that burn up to 20% less fuel while using smarter flight planning to save millions of gallons of gas. But the big hope for Qantas, and the airline industry as a whole, is to replace kerosene jet fuel with “sustainable aviation fuel” (SAF). Made from crops, household waste, animal fat and other biomass, SAF produces around one-fifth the emissions of conventional jet fuel.<br/>
Qantas is seeing a rebound in international travel demand in the near term, with the group now expecting international capacity in April to surpass earlier forecasts. It is now targeting to operate at 40% pre-pandemic capacity in April. Previous forecasts - disclosed in February - indicate the airline to be operating at 22% capacity by in the quarter to 31 March, and at 44% by end-June. The announcement comes as Qantas and its low-cost unit Jetstar disclose plans to grow their international networks out of Sydney, with more flights to India, as well as restarting flights to South Korea. Qantas will operate four weekly flights between Sydney to Bengaluru in South India from 14 September, using its fleet of Airbus A330 aircraft. The flights are first direct link between Australia and South India and will complement its current operations between Melbourne and Delhi. Qantas also announced its intentions to codeshare with Indian low-cost carrier IndiGo on flights to over 50 cities in the country. “The proposed agreement will mean Qantas passengers can transit seamlessly from Qantas flights in Bengaluru, Delhi, or Singapore onto IndiGo services to other major Indian cities as well as smaller ones such as Pune and Goa,” says Qantas. The airline’s expansion into India comes on the back of the Australia-India free trade agreement signed on 2 April, which is expected to boost trade connections between the two countries. With South Korea, Qantas will return to Seoul after a 14-year hiatus, operating flights from Sydney with its A330s. Low-cost unit Jetstar will fly thrice-weekly on the same route using its Boeing 787-8s. <br/>