Qantas to restart Brisbane-Tokyo flights on Thursday

Qantas is set to resume its service between Brisbane and Tokyo Haneda airport on Thursday using its A330s. The three-times-weekly, nine-hour service will depart on Mondays, Thursdays and Saturdays and join the Flying Kangaroo’s seven-times-weekly service to Sydney. Qantas is still not targeting a Japan return to Melbourne until March next year, but sister airline Jetstar has already resumed Cairns to Narita and Osaka flights alongside Gold Coast to Tokyo Narita. Virgin will launch its rival service to Japan in March next year but has already opened it up to reservations. Japan significantly relaxed its strict COVID-19 rules in October to allow tourists to visit the country without a visa. Previously, the country capped visitors at just 50,000 a day and asked arrivals to arrange their travel through an authorised tour operator. New arrivals can now organise their travel independently but must be either triple vaccinated or present a pre-departure COVID-19 test. Air New Zealand currently operates three non-stop flights between Auckland and Tokyo each week. Frequencies will increase to six times a week from 12 December before returning to a daily service from 13 February.<br/>