Australia's Qantas extends schedule changes, cuts local capacity through September

May 1 (Reuters) - Australia's Qantas ‌Airways extended ​its ​schedule adjustments across its international and domestic networks through September on Friday, citing Middle East ‌tensions, elevated fuel costs and robust Europe travel demand.

To ⁠offset higher costs, the airline had earlier raised fares and shifted ‌capacity, as crude price ‌shocks and geopolitical tensions force airlines to prioritise profitable routes, particularly to Europe.

Key changes to the schedule include:

• ​Qantas said it will continue to deploy some aircraft to boost flights between Australia and Europe.

• Under ⁠the new schedule, Qantas' additional Perth-Rome flights have been extended for another three ​months, until the end of October.

• Flights to Paris will revert to three return flights per ​week as planned from August ‌and continue to operate from Sydney via Singapore, the company said.

• Qantas and its low‑cost ⁠carrier, Jetstar, have also reduced capacities in other markets, including the Sydney-Bengaluru route, which will be temporarily suspended from August ⁠and resume operations at the end of October.

• Both carriers have reduced ​capacities across the Tasman as well.

• These changes will reduce earlier planned group international capacity by 2 percentage points for the ‌first quarter of fiscal 2027.

• Qantas has extended its 5-percentage-point capacity reduction for domestic flights ‌through the end of September from the previously announced ⁠June quarter.

• Shares of Qantas ‌rise as much ​as 1.4% to A$8.53 in early trade.

(Reporting by Sruthi Narasimha Chari in Bengaluru; Editing by Subhranshu ‌Sahu)

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