Qantas and Jetstar have announced two new international flight routes out of Sydney airport in time for Aussies booking long-awaited holidays.
Qantas will offer a direct route between Sydney and Bengaluru (formerly Bangalore) – the first non-stop flight between Australia and southern India by any airline.
Both Jetstar and Qantas will start offering direct flights to Seoul in South Korea.
Return flights on Qantas’ Airbus A330 will start flying to the tech and finance hubxjmtzyw of Bengaluru four times a week from September 14.
The flight will shave almost three hours off the current fastest travel time to the southern Indian city.
“It’s clear that Australia is back on the map for international travellers,” Qantas Group chief executive Alan Joyce said.
He attributed the signing of the Australia-India free trade agreement to expanding trade and investment links between the two countries and driving demand for travel.
An agreement with India’s largest domestic airline, IndiGo, will offer connecting flights to 50 cities and a new free trade agreement is expected to strengthen demand.
This will allow Qantas passengers to transit seamlessly from Bengaluru, Delhi or Singapore onto IndiGo flights to other major Indian cities and smaller ones such as Pune and Goa.
Jetstar will start offering direct flights to Seoul’s Incheon International Airport three times a week from November 2.
Qantas will start flights from December 10 – the airline’s first service to Seoul since January 2008.
“Koreans see Sydney as one of the top tourism destinations,” Mr Joyce explained.
Demand for flights to Korea – Australia’s fourth-largest trading partner – is already high due to strong business ties and a desire for premium leisure destinations.
These routes will join the six new routes already added by Qantas in the last six months, including Perth-Rome, Melbourne-Delhi, Melbourne-Dallas Fort-Worth and Darwin-Dili.
