Virgin Australia and Qantas Group announced on April 16 that they would resume a limited schedule of domestic flights to help maintain freight links and options for essential travel for Australians.
The network will be serviced by Virgin, Qantas, and its subsidiary Jetstar. It includes all capital cities, and major regional centres like Alice Springs in the heart of the continent, Coffs Harbour on the east coast, Dubbo inland from the east coast, Cairns and Townsville in the far northeast, and Perth and regional centres on the west coast.
The temporary regional network will focus on towns that are more than two hours’ drive from key hubs.
The new schedule aims to provide secure and affordable flights for passengers who need to travel for essential work, such as frontline medical personnel and defence personnel. Non-essential workers are asked to stay home.
“We are ensuring secure and affordable access for passengers who need to travel, including essential workers such as frontline medical personnel and defence personnel,” McCormack said.
In addition to essential domestic flights, the airlines will continue to help the government bring home Australians from overseas.
One such measure is the Jobkeeper package that provides employers $750 (US$475) per week to retain its employees—in every industry—which is to be passed on in full to employees.
Qantas said while the risk of contracting the CCP virus onboard aircraft is low, they will be implementing social distancing measures across all flights.
The new flights roll out on Friday, April 17 and will operate until June 7.