The Qantas Group has welcomed the reopening of Australia’s borders to most international visitors. On February 21, quarantine and quota restrictions on vaccinated inbound tourists were eased, prompting a surge in long-haul traffic. Flight QF12 from Los Angeles was the first to land at 0620hrs, with flights from other international destinations, including Vancouver, Singapore and London, arriving in Sydney throughout the day. JQ18, Jetstar’s first unrestricted international flight, touched down in Melbourne from Phuket at 1005hrs. The group expects to fly more than 14,000 passengers Down Under in the first week alone. Meanwhile, Qantas has said it will continue to fly its double-daily direct flights from Australia to London via Darwin until at least June, citing ongoing uncertainty around the reopening of Western Australia’s border.
IndiGo has taken delivery of its first aircraft using sustainable aviation fuel (SAF). The pioneering sortie was also the first international flight operated by any Indian carrier using the technology. An Airbus A320neo, VT-IIS (c/n 10766), departed the OEM’s Toulouse facility at 2250hrs on February 17 and arrived in Delhi at 1100hrs local time on February 18. The jet joins the 275+ strong fleet at IndiGo, which operate more than 1,500 daily flights across 71 domestic and 24 international destinations.