Qatar Airways flight QR842, carrying with 324 passengers, was the first flight to land in this southern island resort province under eased entry requirements on Sunday morning. The flight crew and passengers were greeted in the arrival lounge after the plane landed at Phuket's international airport at 6.55am by airport staff led by Monchai Tanode, the airport director, and officials from the immigration, customs and international disease control offices. It took the passengers about 17 minutes to go through the required process. Monchai said a total of 4,482 passengers were to arrive on Sunday. In the month of May, an average of 27 flights per day were to arrive at Phuket as confirmed by 21 airlines, Monchai said. From May 1, the Test & Go and Sandbox schemes have been removed for vaccinated travellers and replaced by the "no quarantine" programme. RT-PCR testing is no longer required. Covid-19 insurance is reduced fromUS$20,000 to $10,000.<br/>
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Qantas Airways will fly non-stop from Sydney to London after ordering a dozen special Airbus jets, charging higher fares in a multi-billion dollar bet that fliers will pay a premium to save four hours on the popular route. To be launched late in 2025, the flights will use A350-1000 planes, specially configured with extra premium seating and reduced overall capacity, to ferry up to 238 passengers in a 20-hour trip - the world's longest direct commercial flight. Announcing plans for the service on Monday, the loss-making carrier said a strong recovery in the domestic market and signs of an improvement in international flying after the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic had given it the confidence to make a major investment on its future. Qantas forecasts a return to profit in the financial year starting this July. The order from the European aircraft maker also includes 40 narrowbody A321XLR and A220 jets to start the replacement of Qantas' ageing domestic fleet, with deliveries spread over a decade. The airline did not disclose the value of the Airbus deal, but analysts at Barrenjoey estimated in a client note it would cost at least A$6b ($4.23b). "Since the start of the calendar year, we have seen huge increases in demand," Qantas CE Alan Joyce said at Sydney Airport, where an Airbus A350-1000 test plane flown from France emblazoned with the Qantas logo and "Our Spirit flies further" was parked in a hangar as a backdrop for the announcement. Qantas shares surged as much as 5.5% on Monday to the highest level since November after it also said debt levels had fallen to pre-COVID levels faster than the market's expectations. The A350-1000 order was the culmination of a challenge called "Project Sunrise" set for Airbus and its rival Boeing in 2017 to create aircraft capable of the record-breaking flights. Airbus was selected as the preferred supplier in late 2019, but Qantas delayed placing an order for two years due to financial challenges during the COVID pandemic.<br/>