Qantas Adds Flights to Palau

You’ll soon be able to fly Qantas direct from Australia to Palau, a small country in Micronesia that’s made up of over 500 islands. It’s particularly famous for its beaches and scuba diving.

Qantas will launch direct flights from Brisbane to Koror, Palau on 7 December 2024, taking over the weekly route from Nauru Airlines.

Dubbed the “Palau Paradise Express”, the Brisbane-Koror route covers 4,335km. That’s just less than the distance between Brisbane and Bali. The flight time is around six hours each way.

Qantas’ Brisbane-Koror schedule

Qantas will use Boeing 737-800s for the Brisbane-Koror flights, which will operate outbound from Australia on Saturdays and back on Sundays. The timing makes this service perfect for a week-long holiday in Micronesia!

This is the schedule:

• QF165 Brisbane 12:30 – Koror 17:30 (Saturdays)
• QF166 Koror 09:00 – Brisbane 15:45 (Sundays)

Qantas flights to Koror are now on sale

Qantas flights from Brisbane to Palau went on sale yesterday, with launch fares available from $899 return in Economy. There are also sale fares available from Sydney and Melbourne for $999 return. Business fares from Brisbane to Koror start from $2,792 return.

Although the Qantas website shows these flights as non-earning, you will earn Qantas Frequent Flyer points on these services. Qantas simply hasn’t updated its calculator yet.

The outbound airfares from Brisbane to Koror are a bit more expensive than the inbound fares. This is because of Australia’s $70 outbound passenger tax, as well as the USD100 (~AU$152.50) Pristine Paradise Environmental Fee that Palau’s government levies on arriving passengers.

You can also now redeem Qantas points to fly from Brisbane to Palau! There are plenty of Classic Flight Reward seats available for 20,300 Qantas points each way in Economy, or 57,000 points in Business Class, plus taxes & carrier charges.

Qantas takes over the route from Nauru Islands

Nauru Airlines first launched non-stop flights on this route in May 2024, with the support of the governments of Australia and Palau. Both governments have chipped in to subsidise the service which they hope will increase tourism and trade between the two nations.

Nauru Airlines was initially contracted to run these flights until the end of October 2024. Qantas has since won a tender process to take over the route until at least November 2025.

Separately, Nauru Airlines will continue to offer an “Island Hopper” service from Brisbane to Koror via Nauru, Tarawa, Majuro and Pohnpei.

Without the direct Brisbane-Koror services, getting from Australia to Palau is a bit of a complicated process. Most options require backtracking via somewhere in Asia such as Manila, Taipei, Hong Kong or Tokyo.

Qantas’ impressive Pacific Island network from Brisbane

With the addition of flights to Palau and the recent launch of Port Vila, Qantas will soon have quite an extensive network of flights from Brisbane to destinations in the Pacific.

These are Qantas’ routes from Brisbane to Trans-Tasman and Pacific destinations:

Qantas also serves Tonga, Fiji and Hawaii out of Sydney.

Last week, Qantas resumed direct flights from Brisbane to Manila as well.

Other changes to Qantas’ international network

At the same time as it announced the Brisbane-Palau route, Qantas also revealed a range of other upcoming changes to its international network. These include:

• The Sydney-Seoul route will be cancelled from June 2025, with services handed over to Jetstar
• Selected Sydney-Dallas/Fort Worth flights upgraded from Boeing 787-9s to Airbus A380s
• Selected Brisbane-Los Angeles and Brisbane-Auckland flights upgraded from Airbus A330-200s to Boeing 787-9s
• Melbourne-Dallas/Fort Worth to get a fourth weekly flight
• Sydney-New York flights reduced from six to five times weekly
• Darwin-Singapore to launch in March 2025 with Airbus A220s
• Brisbane-Noumea flights to be operated by Embraer E190s, instead of the larger Boeing 737-800s

Matt Graham

The editor of Australian Frequent Flyer, Matt's passion for travel has taken him to over 90 countries… with the help of frequent flyer points, of course!
Matt's favourite destinations (so far) are Germany, Brazil & Kazakhstan. His interests include aviation, economics & foreign languages, and he has a soft spot for good food and red wine.

You can connect with Matt by posting on the Australian Frequent Flyer community forum and tagging @AFF Editor.