In the meantime, Qantas Group and Virgin Australia have confirmed the suspension of their subsidised international flights from June 8 after their government-contracted rescue flights expired.
The deputy prime minister and the transport minister Michael McCormack confirmed on June 7 that a range of initiatives would be extended.
He said the extension aimed to ensure “Australian airlines and operators can maintain essential air services” so that Australians can access domestic air travel as restrictions are relaxed.
This includes extending the Domestic Aviation Network Support (DANS) program to September 30, to maintain connectivity on major domestic air routes, and extending the Regional Airline Network Support program from September 30 to December 31, to ensure essential flights continue to regional communities.
The government will continue to cover operating shortfalls on a minimum number of flights on key routes, and on a limited number of regional route services.
The extension also applies to a range of measures under the $715 million Australian Airline Financial Relief program, which is made up of waivers of government charges backdated to February 1.
Domestic Services Are Recovering
The announcement injects a much-needed boost to domestic network recovery, as Qantas Group and Regional Express Airways (REX) have both started to expand its domestic services from this month.However, with domestic travel restrictions still in place, and international restrictions unlikely to ease in the near future, the road to recovery for the aviation industry will be slow.
Given this, he warned that the aviation industry would collapse without government support.
Qantas and Virgin Suspended International Flights
While embracing the recovery of the domestic network, Qantas has ended its special government-underwritten flights to Auckland, Hong Kong, Los Angeles, and London, with the last of the subsidised international flights landing in Australia from Los Angeles on June 8.The airline confirmed the suspension of the international flights in a statement provided to The Epoch Times, explaining that they were operated on a cost-recovery basis, with passenger revenue remitted to the government to offset the cost of operations.
“The temporary international network that Qantas was operating on behalf of the Federal Government has now ended,” the statement reads.
“We were proud to have helped thousands of Australians return home as well as taking foreign nationals back in the other direction.
“We’re particularly grateful to the crew who operated these regular flights together with charters to various other countries over the past few months.”
Qantas will continue to fly some international freight flights and said it was ready to fly some “ad hoc ” international services if required.
Virgin Australia, which entered voluntary administration in April, with more than $7 billion debt, has also suspended its weekly Brisbane to Los Angeles flights which were also underwritten by the government while rescue flights were operated.
The suspension leaves United Airlines’ daily Sydney to San Francisco service as the only direct passenger link between Australia and the United States.
Several international airlines are now offering flights from Australia through to the UK and Europe, including Qatar Airways, Emirates, Etihad Airways, and Cathay Pacific.
With international travel restrictions still in place, only Australian citizens, residents, and immediate family members can travel to Australia and must go into quarantine for 14 days on arrival.