Air travel demand is higher than ever in Australia, Jetstar says

Qantas Airways Ltd.’s low-cost carrier Jetstar said it will operate a record number of flights in Australia early next year as demand rebounds to higher than pre-pandemic levels.

With fewer than 50 active Covid-19 cases, Australia is experiencing a domestic holiday boom as internal travel restrictions ease. The scale of the recovery suggests air passenger traffic, which has been smashed globally by the crisis, can quickly recover if the threat of infection subsides.

Jetstar said Tuesday it plans an unprecedented 850 return flights a week on 55 routes by the end of March, more than 110% of its schedule before Covid-19. Airbus SE A320 planes that usually fly to Bali, Singapore and other overseas destinations will operate the extra services.

Jetstar is stoking demand for flights from mid-January onward with a sale of 300,000 seats, some of them as cheap as A$29 ($22). Almost 90% of Australians plan to travel domestically in 2021, the airline said, citing its own survey of 1,500 people.