SYDNEY, 14 July 2015:  Qantas customers can book direct flights to San Francisco for travel from 18 December 2015 with fares available for sale from today.

With a morning arrival into San Francisco and an overnight flight on the return to Sydney, Qantas’ schedule on the Sydney-San Francisco route means customers can make the most of their time in the city.

Qantas International CEO Gareth Evans said the launch of flights to San Francisco was the next step in the ongoing expansion of Qantas’ trans-Pacific network.

“Ties between Australia and the U.S. are stronger than ever and over the past 12 months we’ve added seats, opened new lounges and fine-tuned our schedule – including introducing our flagship A380 non-stop service between Sydney and Dallas/Fort Worth – to support the trans-Pacific travel market,” said Mr Evans.

“The announcement that Qantas would return to San Francisco really struck a chord with our customers and we’re looking forward to those first flights in December.

“We expect healthy demand from tourists but also from corporate travellers looking to do business with San Francisco’s world-leading technology companies,” said Mr. Evans

The publication of the schedule follows the interim authorisation received from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) last week for the expansion of the Qantas and American Airlines relationship.

Together with American Airlines, Qantas is delivering an enhanced network of 45 services per week across the Pacific and coordinated schedules that allow seamless connections to travel within the United States and Australia. Qantas will also soon offer codeshare services on American Airlines’ new Sydney-Los Angeles route using its state of the art B777-300ER aircraft, with the schedule and fares to be published in the coming weeks.*

To facilitate the new direct San Francisco services, Qantas’ Sydney- Los Angeles flights will move from double daily to ten per week and the airline’s Melbourne-Los Angeles flights will move from ten to nine services per week. Qantas’ Sydney-Johannesburg schedule will move from seven to six per week from 3^rd February next year, with Johannesburg services operating every day except Wednesdays.

Customers with existing bookings on services impacted by the changes will be offered alternative flights to get them to their destination.

Qantas Sydney-San Francisco Schedule*

Fares are available via qantas.com and through Travel Agents progressively from today.

Times above are for ADST (01NOV15 to 12MAR16).

^Effective 27 January 2016. Services will initially operate on peak days from 18 December 2015 and ramp up to permanent schedule of six per week in late January 2016.

Qantas and American Airlines codeshare schedule between Australia and the U.S.

Times above are for ADST (01NOV15 to 12MAR16). Qantas flights to Honolulu and Vancouver are not included in the schedule summary above.

 * Subject to government and regulatory approval

**Changes to Australia-Los Angeles services take effect progressively from 18 December 2015. Los Angeles-New York flight number changed from QF18 to QF12 from 25 October 2015

*** Final schedule to permanently facilitate 6 weekly SYD-SFO services take effect from late January 2016