Australia’s domestic travel boom has virtually given a much-awaited kick start to its national career, Qantas, which was hard hit by the global pandemic.
Obviously, the boom in domestic air travel will fuel job gains in the industry, thus contributing to help recover the corona-battered economy. This was, by and large, due to the prudent management of the pandemic and the government’s ability to make the nation safe through its successful programmes of strict lockdowns and virus contain and control methods.
Qantas will increase an extra one million seats in and out of Adelaide as a result of the boom in domestic travel.
The nation’s premier airline said that a raft of services to and from the South Australian capital and a new Adelaide-Gold Coast route and it will run four times a week.
Five Embraer E190 aircraft will be added to the Qantas fleet at Adelaide Airport to help on QantasLink services to Darwin and Canberra.
The boost to QantasLink services is poised to augment Qantas’s domestic capacity to 107 per cent above pre-coronavirus levels, although budget arm Jetstar is set to be flying at 120 per cent.
Additional services from Adelaide to Sydney and Melbourne will also be included in the schedules across both Qantas and Jetstar.
Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce said using E190s from Adelaide instead of the airline’s larger 737 aircraft will provide customers with more choice in travel times.
“The E190 is a great aircraft for the Adelaide market, with its size, range and economics opening up a number of new destinations that wouldn’t be viable with the larger 737 aircraft,” Mr Joyce said.
“Instead of one or two flights a day with a larger aircraft, we can offer three or four flights a day on the E190, which gives customers a lot more choice about when they travel.”
Mr Joyce said that the return of travel is providing a financial sugar hit to regional economies.
The new base for the 94-seat E190s is anticipated to create a further 200 jobs in South Australia, with the roles making up of pilots, crew and engineers.
The network deal is in partnership with Alliance Airlines and assisted by the South Australian government.
South Australian Premier Steven Marshall said it would boost the state’s tourism and make Adelaide a regional aviation hub.
“The base will create aviation and maintenance jobs, increase tourism and position Adelaide as Australia’s regional aviation hub,” he said.
“These are important priorities for our state’s economic development and represent a strong step forward in creating direct regional and international aviation connectivity.” QantasLink also said that extend its service from Melbourne to Burnie, Tasmania.
Domestic travel boom not only creates much-needed jobs, assists regional as well as state economies, but also help create state-of-the art world class aviation infrastructure facilities such as regional aviation bubs that would enable substantial growth of regional as well as international travels and overall growth in the industry.
