Qantas recently started operating flights to India again, coming back to the country after many years. Their first flight was to Delhi, flying from Sydney with an Airbus A330. They followed it up with a Melbourne – Delhi operation. After the success of its flights into Delhi, and with scheduled operations for international airlines restarting in late March 2022 (and Australia opening up as well) Qantas has now decided to expand in the country.

Qantas to launch flights to Bengaluru in September 2022

Qantas will grow its international network out of Sydney, with new direct routes to India taking off this year, accelerating New South Wales’ post-COVID tourism recovery. Qantas will operate four weekly return flights from Sydney to Bengaluru (formerly known as Bangalore) from September 14, 2022, using its widebody Airbus A330 aircraft.

This will be the first non-stop flight between Australia and southern India by any airline and will cut almost three hours off the current fastest travel time from Sydney to Bengaluru. Qantas, in the meantime has not extended the seasonal Sydney – Delhi launch to a year-around operation yet.

Here is the schedule of the flight:

QF67 SYD0930 – 1655BLR A332 3567
QF68 BLR1835 – 1020(+1)SYD A332 3567

Qantas will continue to operate up to five flights a week between Melbourne and Delhi, making it the only airline offering direct flights between Australia and both northern and southern India.

The A330-200 of Qantas features 27 business class seats and 224 in the economy cabin. Here is a look inside the Qantas A330-200 product.

 

Air India, which operates the Dreamliner on routes to Australia, has 256 seats – a mix of 18 business class seats and 238 economy class seats. Air India continues to operate daily services to both Sydney and Melbourne from New Delhi.

Qantas and IndiGo will codeshare in India

Qantas intends to enter into a codeshare agreement with IndiGo, which will give customers improved one-stop access to more than 50 Indian cities.

The proposed agreement will mean Qantas passengers can transit seamlessly from Qantas flights in Bengaluru, Delhi, or Singapore onto IndiGo services to other Indian cities.

Under the planned agreement, Qantas Frequent Flyers will be able to earn and redeem points on connecting IndiGo flights (QF code only) and IndiGo will recognise Qantas Frequent Flyer benefits for tiered members (Silver, Gold, Platinum and Platinum One) including priority check-in, additional baggage allowance and priority baggage.

Qantas customers travelling on IndiGo will enjoy the same baggage allowance for the entire journey as well as complimentary food and drinks.

The partnership will extend to Jetstar customers who will be able to book connecting flights on IndiGo services through its Jetstar Connect platform on jetstar.com from late April.

On this occasion, Qantas Group CEO Alan Joyce said,

The signing of the Australia-India free trade agreement is a driver of travel demand as trade and investment links expand between Australia and India’s population of more than one billion people. Our new direct flights to Bengaluru, combined with the planned codeshare with IndiGo, have the potential to reshape the way many people travel between Australia and India.

Ronojoy Dutta, CEO, IndiGo, commented on the codeshare partnership,

We are pleased to announce our proposed codeshare partnership with Australia’s flag carrier, Qantas Airways under Australia-India Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement.

Once finalised, this new partnership will enable the Qantas customers to fly to more than 50 unique cities on IndiGo via Bengaluru, Delhi, and Singapore with the access of 41, 33, and 6 destinations per station respectively.

“We believe that this strong partnership will not only create seamless connectivity between India and Australia but also create opportunities for trade and tourism as both nations experience an influx of tourists again.”

To reward Frequent Flyer members, Qantas will offer the first three return services between Sydney and Bengaluru as Points Planes meaning frequent flyers can use Qantas Points to book any seat as a Classic Reward Seat until the end of April 2022. Seats on these flights can also be purchased with cash.

Classic Flight Reward seats between Sydney and Bengaluru start from 37,600 points one way.

Bottomline

Qantas clearly sees more potential for India-Australia travels after its long hiatus here than Air India itself and is launching its third flight to India in six months, and heading to the second airport in India within six months of restarting operations to India. The Qantas flight between Bengaluru and Sydney will take off in September 2022, flying four times a week between the two cities.

What do you think of Qantas adding more flights to India?

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