Qantas will come to South Africa
For years, Qantas has been fighting to share in the profits of the Perth to Johannesburg route. The airline last put the plans on hold in 2018. Now the plans are coming back to life - in the middle of the pandemic. From Sydney, the Australians can actually fly to South Africa. Due to the lockdown and travel restrictions, all flights are currently suspended, and the detour from Perth to Sydney and then on to South Africa costs a lot of time. That should change.
Even before the pandemic, South African Airways was the only airline operating the route. But after the airline stumbled more and more, the flights were stopped. The financial situation of South African does not give the impression that the route will be resumed anytime soon. Qantas seizes the opportunity and tries to establish itself on the route.
Qantas' interest in serving the Perth to Johannesburg route did not only arise now. The last time there were concrete plans was in 2018, seasonally they wanted to fly to Johannesburg from November to March.
The Airbus A330 was supposed to fly between the two continents, but disagreement with the airport crossed the plans. The airline was supposed to operate the flights from Terminal 1, but Qantas wanted to fly from Terminal 3 and 4, and other long-haul routes such as Singapore and London are also operated from there.
