With Australia’s borders effectively closed, and most Australians banned from leaving the country for the time being, it’s fair to say that demand for international air travel is weak right now. Many airlines have responded by reducing or eliminating international flights to or from Australia.

But the movement of cargo is more important than ever. Many airlines, including Emirates, are still operating cargo flights to and from Australia despite passenger flights being suspended. (Some airlines are even converting passenger planes into freighters.)

And some people still need to travel. So, which airlines are still operating passenger flights to and from Australia – and where are they flying to?

Qantas and Virgin Australia have been operating a limited number of scheduled repatriation flights from London, Los Angeles, Hong Kong and Auckland to both Brisbane and Melbourne during April, subsidised by the federal government. These special flights could be booked on the airlines’ websites, but were only running one or two times per week and for a limited period of time. Only Economy seats were available, and no frequent flyer points or status credits could be earned.

Meanwhile, there are still some international airlines operating regular commercial flights to and from Australia. Here is a full list of international flights to/from Australia with commercial seats available for sale as of the start of May 2020:

Australia is also still receiving occasional repatriation charter flights from other airlines that don’t normally fly here. Last month, airlines including KLM, Nepal Airlines, Austrian Airlines and Condor operated repatriation flights to Australia, either brining home Aussies or returning stranded citizens from Australia to their respective home countries. In addition, EgyptAir this week flew from Cairo to Brisbane via Manila. Spanish airline Iberia is also flying from Sydney to Madrid via Bangkok this week.

Several other airlines were also regularly flying to Australia until the end of April. After this weekend, Malaysia Airlines will temporarily end regular services from Kuala Lumpur to Sydney and Perth. Next Monday, Xiamen Air will fly Sydney-Xiamen and Korean Air will fly Sydney-Seoul for the last time in a while. Qatar Airways had also been flying regularly from Doha to Brisbane, and had been operating multiple times daily to Sydney, Melbourne and Perth during April 2020.

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.