Australian flag carrier Qantas on Monday announced that it would launch four new routes across its domestic network to boost tourism and connectivity between regional centres and capital cities.
Three weekly return flights will operate on the airline’s newly added routes, Darwin-Townsville, Brisbane-Wagga, and Adelaide-Newcastle, reports Xinhua news agency.
Another will see four weekly return flights run between Darwin and Cairns. They will together add more than 2,300 seats into Qantas’s domestic network each week.
QantasLink CEO John Gissing said the new services were among 52 new routes added to its domestic network since the beginning of the pandemic as Australians looked for local travel opportunities.
“Not only have we seen a huge surge in demand for domestic tourism, but we have seen a real shift towards investment in our regional communities as economic and industrial hubs.”
On Sunday, Qantas also launched flights to the heart of Australia to bring tourists to the world-famous Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park and part of the nation’s aboriginal culture.
The airline will operate four flights a week between the nation’s biggest city of Sydney and Uluru to support the iconic tourist landscape.
The national carrier said as Australians and international visitors are making up for two years of lost travel adventures, the airline has seen a huge surge in demand for domestic tourism.
The launch of those new routes will meet pent-up demand for Australians in time for the upcoming peak tourist season.