Qantas naming Canberra-Singapore route for new plane has Barr excited

The prospect of more international flights to and from Canberra have strengthened with Qantas CEO Vanessa Hudson naming the Canberra-Singapore route as being on the airline’s radar for the national carrier’s new planes.

Qantas says it is expecting its first mid-haul A321XLR plane to be handed over in the first quarter of 2025.

It has signed up with Airbus for an initial 28 A321XLRs with 15 more slated for Jetstar.

The narrow-bodied A321XLRs can carry up to 244 passengers and will arrive alongside 29 Airbus A220s to replace the Boeing 717s.

The range of both jets has them earmarked for domestic and short- to medium-range international flights.

The A321XLR will have an additional high-capacity fuel tank to boost its non-stop capability to as much as 11 hours or 8700km.

That’s almost 3000km more than the Qantas Boeing 737, and sufficient for direct flights from Australia to most of south-east Asia.

This will open up new routes where larger twin-aisle jets such as the Airbus A330 or Boeing 787 are not economically viable with small passenger numbers.

Ms Hudson said the XLRs would be able to enter markets Qantas hadn’t been able to commercially operate in such as Adelaide-Singapore and Canberra-Singapore as well as flights from Darwin and Perth, and “up into India (and) Malaysia”.

“We will absolutely consider all those routes” Ms Hudson told Executive Traveller.

Chief Minister Andrew Barr seized on Ms Hudson’s comments, saying it was the strongest signal yet that the national carrier would launch a new international route out of the national capital.

Mr Barr – who continues to pursue direct international flight connections with Asia, including China; the Pacific and New Zealand – said it was encouraging that the new aircraft would start arriving from next year.

He has long seen the new planes as a game-changer for Canberra aviation.

“I’m not sure that the very first one will be deployed on Canberra-Singapore, but it’s certainly in their mix,” Mr Barr said at a Canberra hospitality and tourism announcement.

Given the competitive nature of international aviation, Mr Barr said that Qantas’s identification of the Canberra-Singapore route could prompt a response from Singapore Airlines to return to the national capital.

Mr Barr said he also hoped that Qatar Airways would be back.

“I’ve written to [Transport] Minister [Catherine] King that any further change to the bilateral with Qatar Airways between Australia and Qatar would support additional flights into secondary airports, and Canberra would be in the mix there,” he said.

Mr Barr said the airline currently had an entitlement for seven extra flights, which were going to Adelaide.

“If they were given some more rights to secondary airports, it would make sense for them to come into Canberra,” he said.

But Qantas had the inside running, having the existing infrastructure at Canberra Airport and in Singapore, Mr Barr said.

“So that they’re not having to establish a whole range of necessary elements to support a new route because they already have flights to a dozen destinations from Canberra,” he said.

“So I’d say they are the most likely given the new aircraft arrival, but it is of course contingent on the aircraft being delivered to them by Airbus.”

Mr Bar has previously said the advent of the new planes would also make it more viable for Qantas to fly direct to NZ destinations from Canberra.