Key Points
- Qantas will fly to Palau for the first time.
- The airline was awarded a government contract.
- The flights will start 'in the coming months'.
Qantas has announced it will fly to Palau for the first time, as the airline revealed an expanded schedule for next year.
Weekly flights from Brisbane to the tiny Pacific nation will go on sale "in the coming weeks" and take off "in the coming months", Qantas said in a release on Wednesday.
Qantas said it was awarded a government contract to "help maintain strong trade and tourism links between Australia and Palau".
Palau, which is about a six-hour flight from Brisbane, is one of the world's smallest countries, with a population of less than 20,000 people. It is made up of approximately 300 islands, eight of which are inhabited, and is a popular scuba diving destination.
The country's capital is Ngerulmud, located on Babeldaob, the largest island.
The airline will also drop an international route, no longer flying from Sydney to the Korean capital Seoul. Its budget airline Jetstar will increase flights on the Sydney-Seoul route.
Qantas Group international chief executive Cam Wallace said the airline is responding to "increasing demand".
He said Qantas would redeploy its aircraft to other routes "where we are seeing strong demand".
The national carrier said that from February 2025, it will add around 220,000 seats to its international network over 12 months.
This will be further boosted by larger planes flying its Darwin to Singapore route.
The company had earlier announced it would launch the route in March 2025 with the Embraer E190, but said on Monday the larger 137-seat A220 will now operate five times per week.
Qantas will resume flights to Noumea, earlier in the year forced it to cancel the route.
Melbourne to Dallas flights will increase from three to four per week, while Sydney to New York flights will reduce from six to five per week.
