Australian flag carrier Qantas will suspend flights between Sydney and Shanghai from 28 July “due to low demand”, the carrier announced this week.
The service resumed in October 2023 after being put on hold during the pandemic, “however demand has not recovered as anticipated.”
The carrier intends to “monitor the Australia-China market closely,” and will return to Shanghai when demand has recovered, according to Qantas.
Customers still can travel to Shanghai via Qantas flights to Hong Kong that then connect to partner airlines, according to the carrier.
Customers with tickets between Sydney and Shanghai for travel after 28 July will be offered a full refund, or they can rebook on alternative flights.
New and expanded routes
From 28 October the carrier will launch a new route between Brisbane and Manila, the Philippines. Flights will operate four times weekly with Airbus A330 aircraft, “making it the first time the airline has flown between the two cities in more than 10 years,” according to Qantas.
In addition, from 11 December, flights between Sydney and Singapore will increase to 17 times weekly from 14, according to Qantas. And from 27 October, flights between Brisbane and Singapore will increase to nine per week from seven, to improve connectivity with Qantas’ daily service from Singapore to London, “reducing overall travel time to Heathrow by around four hours”.
Further, from mid-December 2024 to late-March 2025, Qantas will increase flights between Sydney and Bengaluru to daily from five times weekly. The change will add more than 12,000 seats between the two cities over the four-month period, according to the carrier.