Australia Qantas is preparing for international flights from December, according to the CEO

Australian airline Qantas expects international flights to the United States, the United Kingdom and parts of Asia to resume for Christmas, CEO Alan Joyce said on Thursday.

Since March last year, Australia has closed its borders to most foreign visitors and banned residents from leaving unless they have valid reasons.

“We know there’s a huge underlying demand. People don’t want another Christmas where they’re isolated from their families, let alone internationally, but [also] in Australia, ”Joyce told CNBC’s“ Squawk Box Asia ”.

An increase in local Covid-19 cases in recent months has forced Australian states and territories to intensify restrictions, including restrictions on interstate travel and home stay warnings in high-risk areas.

Joyce said Qantas plans its operations on the assumption that Australia’s two most populous states, New South Wales and Victoria, will lift most of their border restrictions on the rest of the country on December 1st.

This would be followed by the assumption that restrictions at international borders will be reduced as more Australians are vaccinated. “And, that by Christmas, we will see markets like Singapore, the UK, Japan and the US … they also open up,” he added.

Australia’s vaccination rates are also rising after a slow deployment at the start.

The information gathered by the online publication Our World In Data shows that almost 25% of the population has been fully vaccinated on August 24, compared to just under 6% at the end of June. Australian government data showed that as of Wednesday, 32.3% of people over the age of 16, or about 6.6 million people, were fully vaccinated.

The Australian government wants to completely vaccinate between 70% and 80% of its population before easing restrictions on international borders. This means progressively allowing international travel in and out of so-called “safe” countries and reducing the requirements for fully vaccinated visitors arriving in Australia.

“The government has said they think it’s a sensible plan. They don’t have a crystal ball, but they think that’s what will probably happen,” Joyce said, adding that he expects Qantas to fire all cylinders once it’s done. reopen the borders.

Qantas expects international routes to countries with lower vaccination rates, such as Indonesia, South Africa or the Philippines, to begin in April next year at the earliest.

Like most airlines and travel-related companies around the world, Qantas was successful as the coronavirus pandemic caused an almost total collapse in air travel demand.

As part of last year’s restructuring efforts, the carrier was forced to lay off about 10,000 people from a total workforce of about 32,000 workers before the pandemic, Joyce told CNBC.

“It was heartbreaking to see a lot of fantastic people leave, but it is necessary to restructure the business so that it can recover from Covid,” he said.

“We believe there are none because the vaccine is the light at the end of the tunnel,” he added when asked if Qantas could fire more people.

However, more than 8,000 Qantas employees, mostly from international companies, have retired; this means that as long as they remain busy, they will not be charged until operations are resumed.

The carrier reported earnings for the year ended June 30 on Thursday.

• The legal loss after taxes stood at A $ 1.73 billion ($ 1.25 billion), narrower than the A $ 1.96 billion loss recorded the previous year.
• The group’s revenue was A $ 5.9 billion, 58% less than the previous year.

Shares of Qantas rose 3.29% on Thursday at the back of the earnings report.

Joyce told CNBC that Qantas expects to lose A $ 20 billion in revenue later this year due to the pandemic.