Qantas has announced more international capacity ahead of additional aircraft returning to its fleet, including going to daily on its Sydney-Auckland-New York route.

The airline says it is currently at around 80 per cent of its pre-Covid international capacity levels, which has almost doubled in the past year. This is expected to reach 100 per cent by March 2024, with this additional flying taking it beyond that level from July 2024 onwards.

Qantas launched its flights between Auckland and New York in June in direct competition with Air New Zealand. Both airlines fly three return services a week at the moment, Qantas will lift this to four times a week from the end of October but from August next year go to daily on the 14,200km flight.

Qantas International chief executive Cam Wallace (formerly Air NZ’s chief revenue officer) said the additional flying would help support the sustained demand for international travel and push down fares.

Qantas has received three long-awaited Boeing 787s in recent months and is gradually able to return more of its Airbus A380s to service as they complete post-storage maintenance, which is enabling flying levels to steadily increase to meet strong travel demand.

Air NZ is poised to announce a boost to its international flying this week but doesn’t get new Boeing 787 Dreamliners designed for the ultra-long range New York route until late next year.

Qantas said it will add more than 250,000 additional seats to and from Australia that also includes:

Sydney-Bali – larger Airbus A330 aircraft will replace daily Boeing 737 flights from October this year with more premium seats and fully-flat beds in Business Class.

Sydney-Johannesburg – for the first time Qantas A380s will operate to South Africa from July 2024, nearly doubling capacity during peak periods.

Melbourne-Los Angeles – capacity will increase by around 20 per cent with more A380 flights on the route from July 2024.

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Sydney-Los Angeles – flights will increase from eight to nine per week from July 2024, operated with a mix of 787 and A380 aircraft.

Wallace said hundreds of thousands of extra seats on the network was great news for customers.

“We know our customers are looking for great value and this additional capacity will put more downward pressure on fares.

“The additional capacity will largely be made possible through our final two A380s returning to the Qantas fleet following heavy maintenance and cabin improvements.”

The announcement follows the previously-announced one million seats being added to the airline’s network over the next year with new routes, larger aircraft and more flights to popular destinations.

The previously announced routes commencing in the coming months include:

Sydney-Shanghai – resuming in late October, operating for the first time in more than three years.

Brisbane-Honiara and Brisbane-Wellington – launching in late October.

Customers can use Covid credits when booking Qantas flights.

In June, Qantas launched an online Find My Credit tool to help reunite customers with bookings dating back to 2020 that were cancelled due to sudden and repeat border closures. The travel expiry date for these credits has been extended, giving customers an extra 12 months to travel provided they book by December 31 this year.

* Some flights are subject to government and regulatory approval.

Grant Bradley has been working at the Herald since 1993. He is the Business Herald’s deputy editor and covers aviation and tourism.