The Australian airline Qantas delays the re-opening of their direct flight route from Sydney to San Francisco.
The international service, which after multiple delays were set to re-commence in October has now been delayed again for another six months to March 2023.
Qantas has yet to provide a comment on the reasoning for the delay. However, as news site Executive Traveller has reported, their official timetable now shows Sydney to San Francisco flights are missing until March 27, 2023.
Travel Radar also reached out for comment from Qantas, but they have yet to respond with a statement.
Qantas’ Widebody Fleet Slow Rollout
The news comes just as the Centre of Aviation (CAPA) published a report on Monday morning detailing Qantas’s troubles bringing their fleet of widebody carriers back into service, as they slowly recover from the ceasing of international flights during the COVID-19 pandemic.
To date, only half of Qantas’ ten A380s have reentered service, with the remaining five due by December 2023 following interior upgrades and maintenance. Another one of them has been dismantled entirely as the older aircraft begins to be phased out of the industry.
The report stated that the process of reintroducing larger air carriers has proven to be a much more difficult task than narrow-body counterparts in the aftermath of unprecedented times for the industry which saw more planes than ever put into storage (with some airbuses left in infamously odd locations around the globe).
“Many grounded aircraft will not fly again with Australasian airlines, and the retirement of some older models has been accelerated. Fleet renewal has also been complicated by manufacturer delivery delays.”
Centre of Aviation (CAPA)
However, the industry report also stressed that things aren’t all doom and gloom for Qantas, as well as other international flight providers in the region, as they have placed – or are planning – more widebody orders that will underpin their future international fleet.
Were you planning on a trip to San Francisco with Qantas? Let us know in the comments…
