Qantas to launch flights between Sydney and Sapporo in December

Qantas has confirmed that it will launch direct seasonal flights between Sydney and Sapporo, a popular ski destination in Japan.

Qantas will fly three times per week to Sapporo’s New Chitose Airport between Dec 16 and March 28, 2020.

The flights will be operated with Qantas’ upgraded Airbus A330 aircraft, offering more than 10,000 seats on the route over the period.

Qantas International Acting CEO Naren Kumar said, “Travel between Australia and Japan is booming. These new flights make it easier for Australians to reach Hokkaido’s popular ski resorts like Niseko and Rusutsu. The number of Australians travelling to Japan has more than doubled over the past five years, with almost 500,000 Australians visiting Japan in the last 12 months alone. We expect Japan’s popularity to continue with the country hosting a number of major international sporting events in the next two years.

"Domestic connections with Jetstar Japan will also open up new options for customers who want to travel beyond the Hokkaido region for both business and leisure. In the past two years we’ve expanded our network by adding two new destinations in Japan to meet this growing demand: a year-round service to Osaka, and now seasonal services to Sapporo. We’ll continue to look for opportunities to meet customer demand.”

The new Sapporo service adds to Qantas’ flights from Sydney to Tokyo (Haneda) and Osaka, Melbourne-Tokyo (Narita) and Brisbane-Tokyo (Narita) and Jetstar’s flights from Cairns to Tokyo (Narita) and Osaka, and Gold Coast to Tokyo (Narita).

Japan will host the Rugby World Cup later this year, and Tokyo will host the Olympics in 2020.

© Asia Travel Tips