Japan’s border may still be closed to independent tourists, but that hasn’t stopped Jetstar from restarting direct flights from Australia to Japan for the first time since the pandemic began!

Jetstar began last week by restarting its Cairns-Tokyo route. The first flight back from Tokyo’s Narita Airport to Cairns was almost completely filled by Japanese holidaymakers.

The Cairns-Tokyo route is now running five times per week on a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner. This is the schedule:

• JQ25 Cairns 11:10 – Narita 17:40
• JQ26 Narita 20:15 – Cairns 04:35 (+1 day)

From tomorrow, Jetstar will also resume the following 4x weekly services between Cairns and Osaka:

• JQ15 Cairns 12:25 – Osaka 18:25
• JQ16 Osaka 21:05 – Cairns 05:15 (+1 day)

Jetstar flights between the Gold Coast and Narita are scheduled to resume from 2 August 2022.

There’s currently a decent amount of award availability on these flights, with up to 4 Business seats on some flights available to book using Qantas Frequent Flyer points.

Japan’s slow border reopening

Japan’s international border has reopened to a limited number of business travellers and certain types of visa holders. Overseas tourists on escorted package tours are also now able to enter the country under limited circumstances, although few have chosen to do so given the heavy restrictions. Independent tourists have not yet been allowed back into Japan since the country closed its border due to COVID-19.

Crucially for Jetstar, though, Japanese citizens can now freely travel to Australia for holidays and return to their country. So, Jetstar has decided to proceed with resuming flights to Japan purely on the basis of strong inbound demand from Japanese tourists coming to Australia.

“Australia has always been a popular destination for Japanese travellers, and we’re excited to be able to reconnect the two countries, providing a significant tourism boost to the local Cairns community and Queensland more broadly,” Jetstar CEO Gareth Evans said.

“Jetstar is the first Australian carrier to relaunch flights between Australia and Japan, and we’re already seeing a lot of pent-up demand from Japanese travellers eager to visit Australia.

“Japan has also always been a popular destination for Australians, and we look forward to welcoming an announcement from the Japanese Government about the easing of international restrictions, which will allow two-way travel between the two countries.”

When will Qantas resume flights to Japan?

Jetstar’s parent company, Qantas, has not yet resumed its own flights to Japan. Before the pandemic, Qantas flew five Japanese routes using its own aircraft: Sydney-Tokyo, Melbourne-Narita, Brisbane-Narita, Sydney-Osaka and a seasonal Sydney-Sapporo service.

Qantas is currently planning to resume daily Sydney-Tokyo flights from 12 September 2022 and tickets are currently on sale for flights beyond this date. However, this may depend on Japan reopening its border by then to independent tourists from Australia.

If Japan is still not fully open by then, Qantas may push back the relaunch of its flights to Tokyo yet again. So, book on Qantas with caution as they have a cruel habit of leaving customers waiting months for a refund after cancelling flights.

All Nippon Airways (ANA) has been flying throughout the pandemic between Sydney and Tokyo (Haneda), while Japan Airlines is currently running flights from Sydney to Tokyo and Melbourne to Narita.

You can leave a comment or discuss this topic on the Australian Frequent Flyer forum.

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.