Qantas Airways Ltd’s flying 90% of pre-pandemic domestic schedule: Jetstar CEO

Qantas Airways Ltd’s budget arm Jetstar is flying 90% of its pre-pandemic domestic schedule in March amid a rebound in demand as state borders have reopened in Australia, Jetstar’s chief executive said on Wednesday.

“We are feeling certainly more positive than we have in 12 months,” Jetstar Group CEO Gareth Evans said at a CAPA Centre for Aviation event.

The low-cost airline in December had hoped to reach more than 110% of its pre-pandemic domestic schedule by this month, but that was downgraded because of state border closures amid Covid-19 case clusters.

Qantas has been boosting capacity at Jetstar more quickly than at its main brand because business travel is taking longer to recover to pre-pandemic levels than leisure travel.