Hugs and holidays are back as Queensland border reopens

Qantas and Jetstar are set to reunite thousands of loved ones today as Queensland’s border reopens to Victoria and New South Wales for the first time in more than five months.

Nearly 10,000 passengers will travel today on close to 100 Qantas and Jetstar flights to and from Queensland, with many of today’s flights fully booked. JQ400 will be the first flight to touch down in the sunshine state, arriving on the Gold Coast at 6:25am local time, closely followed by QF504 into Brisbane at 7:25am. 

This week, the two airlines will operate around 700 flights to and from Queensland across 28 routes from Victoria and New South Wales. This compares with around 100 flights last week when borders were still closed. Flights from the eastern states will ramp up even further in the lead up to Christmas, with up to 1200 weekly flights to and from Queensland operating from next week. 

The reopening of borders also sees Sydney-Brisbane and Melbourne-Brisbane returning to their pre-COVID position in the top three busiest air routes in the country (behind Melbourne-Sydney in top spot). 

Flights between Queensland and the ACT will also commence this week, with Jetstar’s inaugural Canberra to Brisbane flights taking off on Friday. 

Since the start of the pandemic Qantas and Jetstar have announced 13 new Queensland routes, including Brisbane to Canberra, Sydney to Mackay, Sydney to Hervey Bay and Brisbane to Wagga.