Qantas announces more flights to jack up Australian tourism

30 May, 2007

Australia is going all out to promote domestic as well as international tourism.

In an effort to push up inbound tourism in Australia, Australia’s flag-carrier Qantas has announced new international flights.

Qantas will fly extra services to destinations in China and South Africa and Los Angeles. It will also add a South American destination to its network.

The changes in schedule include an additional return service between Sydney (Australia) and Shanghai (China) from August 2007, taking the total number of flights offered on that route to five a week.

According to Rob Gurney, sales general manager of Qantas, China is an important and growing aviation market. Qantas has been concentrating on growth opportunities on its China routes since it restarted operations in China in 2004.

From August 2007, Qantas will offer eight return services a week from Sydney to China – five to Shanghai and three to Beijing. Qantas will be looking at further opportunities to expand its presence in China, for example, offering supplementary services to Beijing to coincide with the 2008 Olympics, Rob Gurney told the Australian Tourism Exchange in Brisbane.

The other additional flights include the Brisbane-Los Angeles services each week from March 2008; one additional Sydney-Los Angeles service each week from March 2008; the services to South America from November 2008; and an additional one weekly service between Sydney and Johannesburg from November 2008.

The new international schedule would include three extra return services a week from Los Angeles to Australia – two into Brisbane and one into Sydney from March 2008.

This would take the number of services offered from mainland United States to Australia to a record 43 a week to Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane from Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York.

On its domestic network, Qantas will add three new Boeing 737-800 services a week between Brisbane and Perth from August 2077.

In another effort to boost international tourism to Australia, a travel website has been launched. The website australia.com is available in seven languages.

Fran Kelly, Australia’s Federal Tourism Minister, says that more than half of all international tourists to Australia in 2006 used the internet for research. The country, he adds, is keen on using the latest technology to attract more overseas visitors.