Double-daily Qantas Boeing 787-9 flights between Perth and London? The airline’s flagship QF1 ‘Kangaroo Route’ service transferring from an Airbus A380 superjumbo to a Dreamliner?
It almost occurred – actually, it was due to begin on April 20 – earlier than the coronavirus moved from an Asian epidemic to a global pandemic, grounding all international Qantas flights within the process.
And with all of Qantas’ Airbus A380s mothballed until at least late 2023, the aborted Sydney-Perth-London Boeing 787 service may still make a return in years to come back.
In looking again at how this performed out, it is also a reminder of how shortly COVID-19 changed the aviation landscape.
Countdown to a shutdown
On February 1, Qantas joined a dozen different airways in suspending all flights to mainland China in response to the coronavirus outbreak.
The airline told its decision “follows entry restrictions imposed by nations together with Singapore and the US, which impact the motion of crew who work throughout the Qantas Worldwide network.”
“These entry restrictions pose vital logistical challenges for rostering crew to function mainland China providers, resulting in the necessity to briefly suspend these flights.”
Lower than three weeks later, on February 20, Qantas introduced plans to reduce capacity to Singapore and Hong Kong – together with downgrading its Melbourne-Singapore Airbus A380 service to a Boeing 787, and later to an Airbus A330 – because the rising coronavirus stormcloud sapped journey demand throughout Asia.
By March 10 the coronavirus had stepped onto the global stage, and Qantas moved to ground two-thirds of its flagship Airbus A380 fleet.
This included dropping the Sydney-Singapore-London ‘Kangaroo Route’ for an every day Boeing 787 Dreamliner flight from Sydney to London by way of Perth.
“Prior to now fortnight, we’ve seen a pointy drop in bookings on our international network as the global coronavirus spread continues,” Qantas Group CEO Alan Joyce remarked at the time.
Reshaping and rerouting QF1
April 20 was to see Qantas’ flagship QF1/QF2 service re-routed by way of Perth, to run alongside the QF9/QF10 Melbourne-Perth-London service – leading to twice-daily Perth-London flights on the red-tailed Dreamliner.
(With fewer passengers flying to Singapore, and none flying via Singapore to London or back because of the rerouting of QF1/QF2 by way of Perth, Qantas also stated it might briefly pull down the shutters on its Singapore first-class lounge, which had opened just 5 months before.)
In fact, the ink was barely dry on that plan when one week later, on March 19, Qantas announced the suspension of all international flights and the Federal Government introduced mandatory 14-day quarantine for all travelers arriving from abroad.
The ban on Australians headed abroad travel has recently been extended to March 2021 – which is able to mark a full 12 months because the nation’s borders were slammed shut within the face of COVID-19.
