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Demand fuels Qantas Airways return to India
December 7th 2021
Strong demand has seen Qantas Airways scheduled services return to India after almost a decade with a 15-hour flight between Sydney and Delhi on Monday. Read More » The Sydney-Delhi service will be joined by a Melbourne-Delhi route on December 22 and will expand to four times weekly in January. Qantas last flew scheduled services to India in 2012, when it operated a Brisbane-Mumbai service. It has not flown regular passenger flights to Delhi since 1974. The new routes have been the fastest selling in the Qantas network since borders reopened. Most flights in December are sold out. Qantas Domestic and International CEO, Andrew David, said the demand had surpassed the airline’s expectation. “There is a huge amount of pent-up demand from friends and family wanting to reunite after being separated for so long,’’ David said. “There was an incredible response when we announced our new routes to Delhi. Forward bookings for the next few months are well ahead of our initial forecasts. While it is early days, it’s an exciting start.” Despite the long break in scheduled services to India, Qantas operated more than 60 government-backed repatriation flights in the past year to bring Australians home from the sub-continent.
