By the end of 2021, Australia’s flagship airline Qantas is slated to take a pandemic related hit of A$20bn (£10.6bn) in lost revenue, the company’s chief, Alan Joyce. These comments were made by Joyce while announcing the results of the company which announced an annual pre-tax loss of A$1.83bn.

The pre-tax loss number is limited to Qantas’ end of fiscal year till the end of June and does not account for the latest pandemic induced lockdown in Sydney.

However, the airline hopes that it would be able to restart some international travel routes just in time for Christmas.

“This loss shows the impact that a full year of closed international borders and more than 330 days of domestic travel restrictions had on our national carrier,” Joyce said. “The trading conditions have frankly been diabolical,” he added.

Gthe airlines however said it was optimistic for it being able to resume some international flights starting December this year after the total vaccination in Australia reaches 80 per cent of the total eligible population.

Some international flights to “Covid-safe destinations”, which could include the UK, US, Canada, Japan and Singapore, could be reopened by that period, Qantas is hopeful.

In order to meet its anticipated increased demand for flights to Los Angeles and London, the airline is also expecting to bring in five of its A380 super jumbos and press them into international flight service by the middle of next year.

The “Covid recovery plan” of the company resulted in 9,400 people leaving the company while about 6,000 workers remained 6stood down because of the closure of the international borders of Australia, Qantas said. In addition, with the lockdown in Sydney currently impacting air travel across Australia, a further 2,500 staff were stood down earlier this month.

Earlier this month, the company had mandated all of its employees to be vaccinated against Covid-19. The company ordered its frontline workers including pilots, cabin crew and airport staff to get fully vaccinated middle of November.

The rest of the employees have been given a time period till the end of March next year to get fully vaccines against6 Covid-19.

(Adapted from USNews.com)