Just ahead of the start of their new Johannesburg to Perth, Australia route, Qantas has decided to suspend sales. Here’s why…
Johannesburg to Perth bookings on hold
With just a fortnight to go to until the very first flight on their new Johannesburg-Perth route, Qantas has suspended the sale of tickets. But why?
According to Travel News, Michi Messner, Qantas Regional Manager Africa, said that the reason behind the suspension was that Qantas was busy working with Australian Border Force and other government departments on Customs and Biosecurity requirements. So, while this is happening, the airline had to temporarily pause selling tickets on the Johannesburg-Perth route, as well as on the Jakarta-Perth route.
“There are no changes to existing customer bookings – it is planned that our flights will still operate,” Messner said.
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Quantas goes direct
Quantas announced back in June that they will start operating flights between Perth and Johannesburg from 1 November this year, three times a week. This will reportedly be the only direct service from South Africa to Western Australia, adding to the airline’s existing four-times-a-week Johannesburg-Sydney service, which began again post-pandemic on 6 January 2022.
Messner had said that the Perth flights were completely separate from the Sydney flights, and will run on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. The flights will also make use of an Airbus A330-300 with up to 26 seats in business class and 224 in economy.
Flights will depart Perth at 15:00 and arrive in Johannesburg at 20:15, totalling an 11 hour flight duration. Outbound flights from Johannesburg will depart at 22:00 and arrive in Perth at 13:55 the following day, totalling 9 hours 55 minutes in the sky.
