Qantas ramps up flights to Townsville, Cairns, Hobart, Gold Coast
Seven new direct routes will slash connections so that you can spent more time on your holiday.
By David Flynn, May 25 2021
With more Australians taking domestic holidays than ever before due to the country's international borders being closed, Qantas is ramping up its regional network to add seven all-new routes, with a strong focus on sunny Queensland.
Townsville, in tropical far north Queensland, will see fresh non-stop flights from Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide, along with a direct Adelaide-Cairns service.
It's no accident that these largely mirror the routes announced last week by challenger Virgin Australia, as both airlines fight for a larger slice of the domestic market.
Also on the Red Roo's regional roster are non-stop flights between Perth and the Gold Coast, Sydney and Uluru, and Adelaide and Hobart.
Most of these trips will take place on the nimble Embraer E190 jets leased by QantasLink from Alliance Airlines, with the 94-seat E-jets better suited to regional routes than the larger 174-seat Boeing 737.
However, the Sydney-Uluru and Perth-Gold Coast flights will be handled by a Boeing 737.
Qantas Domestic and International CEO Andrew David said the new routes would support the growing demand for domestic tourism.
"As most international travel remains off limits for now, Australians are taking more regular holidays within the country and we expect these new direct flights to key tourism destinations will be popular with travellers."
"Previously, (people) travelling between these cities meant a connecting flight in the middle, but now they can fly direct and save at least an hour in the process."
Here's a rundown of what's new on Qantas' schedule:
| Route | Start date | Return flights per week | Aircraft |
| Adelaide – Townsville | August 2021 | 3 per week | Embraer 190 |
| Adelaide – Cairns | August 2021 | 4 per week | Embraer E190 |
| Adelaide – Hobart | September 2021 | Up to 7 per week | Embraer E190 |
| Sydney – Townsville | September 2021 | 7 per week | Embraer E190 |
| Melbourne – Townsville | September 2021 | 7 per week | Embraer E190 |
| Perth – Gold Coast | September 2021 | 3 per week | Boeing 737 |
| Sydney – Uluru | March 2022 | 5 per week | Boeing 737 |
As previously reported, Qantas will begin flying its international Boeing 787-9 between Sydney and Perth as of Wednesday May 26, while also adding more Airbus A330s to Sydney-Perth, Melbourne-Perth, Sydney-Darwin and Brisbane-Darwin.
Read more: The Dreamliner goes domestic
David Flynn is the Editor-in-Chief of Executive Traveller and a bit of a travel tragic with a weakness for good coffee, shopping and lychee martinis.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
30 May 2013
Total posts 372
Some great flight announcements for Hobart in recent months. Qantas will now service Hobart non-stop from all capital cities expect Darwin by the beginning of Spring. Add in the new Air New Zealand service from Auckland to Hobart and it's been a pretty big year of new routes for the Tasmanian capital!
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
23 Sep 2015
Total posts 26
So pleased to see this great news. Every time an airplane takes to the sky it invariably means someone is in a job whether it be in the airline, hotel, car hire or tourism industry. Great to also see a focus on some destinations that sometimes have had a back seat in these decisions. Well done Qantas
17 Jun 2020
Total posts 238
Good to see travel pick up, but most of this seems to be a copy and paste of what Virgin announced last week, only operated as a (cheaper?) Alliance lease and not by Qantas itself.
Maybe time to rename from the flying kangaroo to the flying copy cat.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
09 May 2011
Total posts 362
There you go again, KW72
02 Mar 2021
Total posts 2
Some great love for Canberra as well from Qantas. You can now fly non-stop from Canberra to all Australian state capital cities with Qantas, and Qantas also offer nonstop flights from Canberra to many Australian east coast regional centres now.
Qantas’ new route and destination announcements over the past nine months are a win for Canberra, a win for Tasmania, a win for the NT and a win for the coastal and inland regional centres across the country.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
29 May 2020
Total posts 32
Intersting as these would normally be Jetstar routes
25 Feb 2015
Total posts 57
Great to hear and interesting to see a new aircraft type (temporarily for now) in the QF fleet. Do we know if they will be repainting these in Qantas (or QantasLink?) colours or doing any internal refurbishments? Looking forward to the review of flying one of these E190s.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
04 Nov 2017
Total posts 325
The E190s were reported to be repainted into QFLink colours with a "operated by Alliance" sticker as they are crewed by Alliance Airlines crew.
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