This week is exciting for Australian airline, airport and tourism operators, with one of the country's best markets reopening to visa-free travel. From October 11th, Japan resumes its visa exemption scheme for short-stay tourism and business travel from selected countries.

The move is paving the way for inbound and outbound tourism to take off between the two nations. Japan is also abolishing its daily arrival cap, thereby opening its doors to independent travel after more than two years of strict COVID-19 restrictions.

Additional services are ready to go

Qantas is increasing services to Haneda International Airport (HND) from Sydney in November and restarting services from Brisbane in December and Melbourne in March 2023. Jetstar has resumed Cairns to Narita and Osaka services and Gold Coast to Tokyo Narita Airport (NRT) flights. Today, Brisbane Airport welcomed the news that non-stop flights to Japan are restarting on December 1st.

Qantas will operate three times a week, departing on Monday, Thursday and Saturday to Haneda from Brisbane using Airbus A330 aircraft. According to ch-aviation.com, Qantas has 23 of its A330s in service, with five inactive. CEO of Qantas International, Andrew David, said that the launch of flights between Haneda and Brisbane Airport (BNE) will encourage more visitors from Japan to Australia's Sunshine State.

"Qantas is the first airline to operate commercial scheduled flights between Haneda and Brisbane and forward bookings are tracking well, in particular for the upcoming Australian holiday period."

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Big opportunity to use those Qantas points

On Friday, Australia's flag carrier Qantas announced it was celebrating the reopening by making available 100,000 frequent flyer (FF) reward seats between Australia and Japan. It will also operate two Points Planes between Sydney International Airport (SYD) and Tokyo Haneda on May 10th, 2023. Qantas will also mark the resumption of flights from Sydney to Hong Kong International Airport (HKG) on January 30th, 2023, with Points Planes. For the unfamiliar, every seat, including in business class, on a Qantas Points Plane is bookable with FF points.

Qantas and Jetstar will make every economy seat between Australia and Japan available as a Classic Flight Reward from May 11th to June 20th, 2023. All economy seats on Jetstar flights between Australia and Japan from October 11th until November 30th will also be available as Classic Flight Rewards. Qantas is offering the reward seats on flights between Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne and Tokyo Haneda, while Jetstar's offer is for flights between Cairns International Airport (CNS) and Tokyo Narita and Osaka Kansai Airport (KIX) and the Gold Coast Airport (OOL) and Narita.

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In the financial year that ended June 30th, 2019, more than 484,000 Japanese tourists visited Australia, leaving behind an estimated AU$2 billion ($1.28 billion) spent during their visit. It was ranked fifth highest for travelers and tourism-related spending, with China topping the list ahead of the USA, the UK, and New Zealand.

The most common reason for Japanese people to visit Australia is for holidays, followed by business travel and visiting friends and relatives. Brisbane Airport says that the outbound services will be equally as popular, given that Google revealed that "Japan is the number one travel destination searched by Australians over the past 20 years."

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  Qantas

  IATA/ICAO Code:

  QF/QFA

  Airline Type:

  Full Service Carrier

  Hub(s):

  Brisbane Airport, Melbourne Airport, Sydney Kingsford Smith Airport

  Year Founded:

  1920

  Alliance:

  oneworld

  CEO:

  Vanessa Hudson

  Country:

  Australia