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SYDNEY – Australia’s national airline Qantas has been operating passenger flights for 98 years, but its best-selling flight turned out to be a trip that goes nowhere.
The airline, which has been heavily affected by the Covid-19 pandemic, will take a seven-hour scenic trip next Saturday (October 10) taking off from Sydney, flying over places like the Great Barrier Reef and Uluru, and then back to Sydney
The 134 tickets aboard the B-787 Dreamliner cost A $ 787 to A $ 3,787 ($ 770 to $ 3,700). The flight sold out in just 10 minutes, making it “probably the best-selling flight in Qantas history,” according to a spokesperson.
But the so-called Great Southern Land flight has sparked a backlash over concerns that it will emit carbon pollution unnecessarily.
The group Flight Free Australia, which campaigns for clean transport options, called for a ban on these flights “to nowhere”.
“Qantas ‘flights to nowhere’ should be renamed ‘flights to a hotter planet,'” a spokesman, Mark Carter, told The Straits Times.
“Passengers on the initial Qantas flight to nowhere will increase their emissions for an entire year by 10 percent in just seven hours, helping to kill the Great Barrier Reef that they see from their windows.”
An online petition has been launched urging Qantas and Prime Minister Scott Morrison to avoid future “useless and polluting flights to nowhere.” As of Saturday (October 3), the petition had around 800 signatures.
Others, however, suggested that the flight, which will be carbon neutral by supporting emissions offsets, could help stimulate tourism and boost the struggling airline sector. Qantas has already cut 6,000 jobs and is expected to lay off even more about 2,500 employees as it struggles to cope with restrictions on foreign and interstate travel.
One travel writer, Ben Groundwater, said he believes scenic flights have “many positive effects” that can outweigh the negative ones. He pointed to the need to save Qantas jobs and suggested that flights over threatened regions like the Great Barrier Reef could encourage people to care more about protecting them.
“The opportunity to see these wonders from the air is unique and the perfect way to show their beauty and fragility,” he wrote on the Australian Traveler website.
“A carbon-free flight over a natural wonder of the world – a flight, it should be said, filled with people who will not trample the earth, leave no footprints, disturb wildlife or desecrate sacred land – not the worst idea anyone had. “
Qantas initially indicated that it may consider more scenic flights. But a spokesperson told ST that there are currently no more scenic flights planned.
While airlines must face the sad reality that air travel may not return to pre-pandemic levels for years, Australia’s travel sector is slowly beginning to resume as Covid-19 numbers decline. .
On Saturday (October 3), the country recorded 10 new Covid-19 cases, eight of which involved community broadcasts, all in Victoria, where the number of cases has plummeted.
In total, Australia has registered 27,121 cases of Covid-19.
Singapore announced this week that it will allow travelers from Australia, except Victoria, to enter from next Thursday. Australia’s federal government also announced on Friday that the state of New South Wales and the Northern Territory will allow New Zealanders to visit without self-quarantine from 16 October.
New Zealand will continue to ban travelers from Australia and require returnees to be quarantined, but there is hope the New Zealand government will consider lifting these restrictions after the country’s elections on October 17.
In other hopeful signs, Canberra is also in talks with Pacific countries about creating travel bubbles that would allow travelers between destinations to avoid quarantine.
Australians have been finding other ways to satisfy their desire to experience air travel again.
For those who miss out on airline meals, an inflight caterer, Gate Gourmet, has been selling frozen food packages, which can be picked up at Brisbane and Sydney airports.
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