Update (25 October): Due to issues with Border Force and customs processing inbound passengers at Terminal 3 of Perth Airport, Qantas has cancelled its planned launch of Perth-Jakarta flights and the Perth-Johannesburg route will only run until March 2023 at this stage.

Qantas has temporarily removed all Perth-Johannesburg flights from sale, as it finalises customs and biosecurity arrangements on the new route which is due to launch in less than two weeks.

Qantas announced in June that it will launch 3x weekly flights from Perth to Johannesburg from 1 November 2022. These flights will be operated by Airbus A330-200s and complement Qantas’ existing Sydney-Johannesburg services.

But several AFF members noticed earlier this week that all flights had been removed from sale. Tickets on the direct Perth-Johannesburg service are no longer available to book on the Qantas website or elsewhere, for travel any time in the next year. Instead, only connecting flights via Sydney are being offered (with more the double the total travel time).

While the removal of flights from sale is often a sign that a route will be cancelled, the good news is that this does not appear to be the case here. Qantas has confirmed to Australian Frequent Flyer that it’s just a temporary pause on the selling of new tickets. The flights are still expected to go ahead.

Flights on Qantas’ Perth-Jakarta route, due to launch in late November, have also been temporarily removed from sale. Both the Perth-Johannesburg and Perth-Jakarta routes are being subsidised by the WA government and Perth Airport.

“We have temporarily paused selling flights for our new Perth-Johannesburg and Perth-Jakarta routes as we work with Australian Border Force and other government departments on the Customs and Biosecurity requirements for these flights,” a Qantas spokesperson said.

“Our flights from Perth to London, Singapore and Rome are operating and available for booking as normal.”

It’s not exactly clear what customs and biosecurity requirements still need to be negotiated with less than two weeks before the Johannesburg flights are due to commence. One possibility is that there may be a dispute over which terminal the flights will operate from – something that has been a source of conflict between Qantas and Perth Airport in the past – but this isn’t clear.

We would expect to see availability on these flights return in the coming days, although Qantas has not given a specific timeline.

Australian Frequent Flyer understands that QF65/66 between Perth and Johannesburg is currently in the airline’s timetable from next month and crew have already been assigned to work on these flights. So it does appear that Qantas has every intention of launching these flights on schedule – barring any further surprises.

Qantas is also on track to restarting Sydney-Santiago flights next week, although the airline appears to be generally a bit short on aircraft and crew at the moment as it recovers from the pandemic shutdown.

It would be difficult to imagine that Qantas could not make this new Perth-Johannesburg route work. Demand is high and since South African Airways is no longer flying to Perth, Qantas would have a monopoly on the route. There have also been very few discounted airfares or Classic Flight Reward seats released on the route, which would suggest that ticket sales have been strong.

Qantas was previously very close to launching direct Perth-Jo’burg flights in 2018, but this didn’t end up going ahead.

Join the discussion on the Australian Frequent Flyer forum: New Qantas route – PER to JNB QF65/QF66

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 economics, aviation & 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.