Back in February, Qantas announced a suite of temporary reductions to flights in response to a drop in demand due to Coronavirus, cutting capacity to its Asia services by 16%.

“It’s a sad reality at the moment that demand has softened to such a point that airlines, like Qantas, are compelled to cut capacity,” said The Travel Authority Group’s Managing Director, Peter Hosper.

“We are pleased to note that Qantas’ US and UK routes remain unaffected, and we look forward to a swift return to regular scheduling.”

Peter Hosper

Those cuts impacted flights from Australia to mainland China, Hong Kong and Singapore, and included:

• Sydney-Shanghai (the airline’s sole route to mainland China) – Suspended.
• Sydney-Hong Kong – Reduced from 14 return flights per week to 7.
• Brisbane-Hong Kong – Reduced from 7 return flights per week to 4.
• Melbourne-Hong Kong – Reduced from 7 return flights per week to 5.
• Melbourne-Singapore – Flights to be operated by Boeing 787s instead of larger Airbus 380s (approx. 250 less seats per flight).

On 06 March, the airline announced further schedule changes.

The changes, which start next week and continue until the end of March, are:

• Sydney-Hong Kong – 8 return cancellations.
• Sydney-Sapporo – 5 return cancellations (seasonal service).
• Melbourne-Auckland – 5 return cancellations.

The airline also advised that  cancellations will be announced on Brisbane-Tokyo (Narita), Melbourne-Tokyo (Narita) and Sydney-Osaka (Kansai) routes.

Further changes are expected.

There is currently no change to other key parts of the Qantas International network, such as the US and UK, which remain unaffected.

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