Australian airline Qantas has announced it will once again bring forward the restart of services between Sydney and London to 1 November after the federal and New South Wales governments confirmed borders will reopen to certain fully vaccinated travellers on that date.

The carrier had initially planned to restart flights between Sydney and London and Los Angeles in December but brought the launch forward to 14 November after the federal government announced it would relax border restrictions but did not give an exact date. It has now been confirmed that fully vaccinated Australian citizens, permanent residents and their parents will be able to enter the country from abroad starting 1 November.

Furthermore, the New South Wales government has announced that fully vaccinated travellers will no longer need to quarantine on arrival thanks to the state¡¯s high vaccination rate of nearly 80 per cent.

Australia¡¯s borders have essentially been closed since March 2020, with tight caps on the number of citizens and residents allowed to enter. Much of the country will still be closed to international travel, as individual states have the power to decide border restrictions; Queensland, Western Australia, South Australia, Tasmania and the Northern Territory all have restrictions in place to keep their infection numbers at zero and have banned travellers from infected states such as New South Wales and Victoria.

Qantas Group CEO Alan Joyce commented: ¡°Bringing forward the reopening of Australia to the world and removing quarantine requirements for fully vaccinated travellers entering New South Wales is a massive step towards life as we knew it.

¡°We have thousands of our pilots and cabin crew wanting to get back to work and they will be thrilled at today¡¯s announcement. It will be a long time before international travel returns to normal but this is a fantastic start.¡±

The airline said it will operate up to five return flights a week from Sydney to London, though these will operate via Darwin rather than Perth until at least April 2022 owing to Western Australia¡¯s strict border policy. Flights between Melbourne and London via Darwin are currently scheduled to resume on 18 December.

Also from 1 November, Qantas will operate up to four weekly return flights from Sydney to Los Angeles.

Qantas said more flights could be added to both routes to meet demand, and it is also considering bringing forward the restart of services from Sydney to Singapore, Fiji and Vancouver, which are currently scheduled to launch on 18 December.

Passengers who had already booked flights to or from London or Los Angeles after 14 November who want to travel earlier following this announcement can make a fee-free change to their ticket on the Qantas website.