Huge Qantas International Network Expansion in 2023

Qantas has announced a major expansion to its international flying from October 2023.

As well as increasing flights to North America, Asia and New Zealand, Qantas will launch new routes from Brisbane to Wellington and Honiara. It will also finally resume its Sydney-Shanghai service, one of the last remaining international routes yet to return following the pandemic.

The new routes and increased frequencies are made possible by the addition of several new Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners and the return of the remaining parked Airbus A380s into the Qantas fleet. Qantas has also freed up several Airbus A330 aircraft by switching some of its New Zealand and Pacific Island flying from Airbus A330s to Boeing 737s, and by wet leasing two Finnair jets.

“The rebound in demand for international travel since borders reopened has been incredibly strong and this boost to our network will add hundreds of thousands of seats in time for the busy Australian summer holiday period,” Qantas CEO Alan Joyce said.

“While airlines globally are working to restore capacity to meet demand, there is still a mismatch between supply and demand for international flying. But with more of our aircraft back in the air, new 787s joining our fleet and our contract with Finnair, we’ve got more seats for our customers and more opportunity for Qantas crew as we increase our own flying.

“We know our customers are looking for great value and this additional capacity will also put downward pressure on fares.”

Here’s a summary of what’s changing…

New Qantas routes from Brisbane

From 29 October 2023, the start of the IATA northern winter scheduling period, Qantas will offer daily Brisbane-Wellington flights. These flights will be operated by Alliance Airlines Embraer E190 jets on behalf of QantasLink. The schedule will be as follows:

• QF355 Brisbane 08:05 – Wellington 14:40 (daily)
• QF356 Wellington 15:40 – Brisbane 16:35 (daily)

From the same date, Qantas will also launch three weekly E190 flights from Brisbane to Honiara in the Solomon Islands. The schedule will be:

• QF357 Brisbane 09:05 – Honiara 13:25 (Sundays, Mondays & Fridays)
• QF358 Honiara 14:20 – Brisbane 16:30 (Sundays, Mondays & Fridays)

Qantas currently codeshares on the existing Solomon Airlines services between Brisbane and Honiara.

The Alliance Airlines E190 features 10 Business Class seats and 84 Economy seats.

Qantas to resume Sydney-Shanghai route

Qantas has now confirmed plans to resume daily Sydney-Shanghai services on 29 October 2023 using Airbus A330-300s, 3.5 years after the route was suspended due to COVID-19. The schedule will be:

• QF129 Sydney 10:55 – Shanghai 18:30
• QF130 Shanghai 20:05 – Sydney 09:45 (+1 day)

This is one of the final remaining routes in Qantas’ pre-COVID network to return, of those that Qantas plans to bring back. Service has not and isn’t likely to return on the following other routes:

• Sydney-Osaka
• Sydney-Sapporo
• Sydney-Beijing
• Brisbane-Hong Kong
• Brisbane-San Francisco
• Melbourne-San Francisco

Four daily Qantas flights from Australia to Tokyo

Qantas is currently operating daily flights from Sydney to Tokyo’s Haneda Airport. That’s in addition to 4x weekly Melbourne-Haneda and 3x weekly Brisbane-Haneda flights.

From 26 November 2023, Qantas will add a second daily flight from Sydney to Haneda Airport. It will also increase its frequencies from Melbourne and Brisbane to Tokyo to daily, but move those flights back to Tokyo’s Narita Airport.

Haneda Airport is much closer to downtown Tokyo than Narita, and is more popular with business travellers. But Qantas is limited to 14 weekly flights to Haneda Airport and is unlikely to get any more Haneda slots as Virgin Australia will likely keep its allocation (at any cost). So, the only way Qantas can add more flights to Tokyo is by flying to Narita Airport.

Qantas permanently closed its Narita Airport lounge during the pandemic.

On the Sydney-Haneda route, Qantas will soon operate daily daytime and overnight flights in both directions. The daytime Tokyo-Sydney service will be one of the only Qantas flights from Asia to Australia that isn’t a redeye. One of the daily flights will also be upgraded from an Airbus A330 to a Boeing 787 with Premium Economy seating available.

Here’s the new Qantas Sydney-Tokyo schedule from 26 November 2023:

• QF59 Sydney 12:20 – Tokyo (Haneda) 20:15 – Airbus A330-300
• QF25 Sydney 21:45 – Tokyo (Haneda) 05:25 (+1 day) – Boeing 787-9

And in the other direction from Tokyo to Sydney:

• QF26 Tokyo (Haneda) 07:00 – Sydney 18:50 – Boeing 787-9
• QF60 Tokyo (Haneda) 22:00 – Sydney 09:55 (+1 day) – Airbus A330-300

Qantas’ Melbourne-Tokyo and Brisbane-Tokyo routes will retain their current schedules, despite the airport change.

Increased frequencies on other Qantas international routes

From 29 October 2023, Qantas will also add capacity on the following existing routes:

• Melbourne-Los Angeles increases from 7 to 9 flights per week, with some flights operated by Airbus A380s rather than Boeing 787-9s
• Sydney-Auckland-New York increases from 3 to 4 flights per week
• Sydney-Hong Kong capacity increases due to some flights being upgraded from Airbus A330 to A380 aircraft
• Melbourne-Hong Kong increases from 4 to 7 flights per week
• Melbourne-Singapore increases from 10 to 14 flights per week
• Sydney-Singapore gets an extra flight on Fridays, returning from Singapore to Sydney on Sundays
• Melbourne-Delhi doubles from 3 to 6 flights per week during the Australian summer
• Sydney-Christchurch increases from 11 to 14 flights per week
• Sydney-Queenstown gets up to one extra flight per week during the Australian summer

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.