Qantas restarts direct Melbourne-Tokyo flights

Following a three year gap, Qantas has resumed direct flights between Melbourne and Tokyo, creating more options for Australians travelling to Japan.

The new service is the first non-stop flight between Melbourne and Tokyo’s Haneda International Airport by any airline, saving passengers nearly two hours travel to downtown Tokyo compared with Narita Airport, which the flight operated to before the pandemic.

The year-round flights will operate four days per week with an Airbus A330 aircraft and add to Qantas’ existing flights from Sydney and Brisbane to Haneda Airport. Together, these flights offer customers more than 420,000 seats between Australia and Japan annually and the choice of double daily flights to Tokyo.

Qantas Domestic and International CEO Andrew David said the flights would support the resurgence of tourism and trade links between Australia and Japan which have been growing rapidly since borders reopened.

“We’ve seen the demand for our Tokyo flights bounce back very strongly, and our research shows that it is one of the top tourist destinations that Australians plan on visiting in the next 12 months,” David said.

“Our customers in Victoria have been looking forward to the return of this route, with the flights launching in time for travellers to enjoy the cherry blossom season in Japan. Corporate travellers can also now save time on their airport commute by flying into or out of Haneda.

“We’re pleased we can now offer our customers much easier access to Tokyo city centre and the world’s third largest economy from three major east coast Australian cities.

“We’d like to thank the Victorian Government and Melbourne Airport for their support on the launch of this route.”

Alongside this route, Qantas announced a multi-million dollar investment in new menus across all cabins in its domestic, regional and international network.

The new menus will roll out on Wednesday and feature seasonal ingredients that coincides with Autumn. Seasonal grilled chicken, steamed rice, miso soup with Japanese pickles, and pork ramen with pickled shiitake mushroom, shallot and nor, are some of the items which feature on the menu for Qantas’ flights between Australia and Tokyo.

The Melbourne-Tokyo (Haneda) route launch will be soon followed by the national carrier’s new Melbourne-Jakarta service which is set to commence in mid-April.

Featured Image: Tokyo, Japan (Shutterstock)