Qantas shakes up Tokyo flights

Qantas will make Tokyo’s Haneda Airport its primary base in the Japanese capital, in preference to the more distant Narita Airport, with daily flights from Melbourne and Brisbane shifting from Tokyo Narita to Tokyo Haneda in early 2025.

Although an official start date has yet to be announced – with tickets likely to go on sale towards the end of the year – the airline has outlined its new schedule for flights between Australia and Tokyo Haneda as follows:

• QF61 Brisbane to Tokyo Haneda will depart at 11.45am, arriving at 8pm
• QF62 Tokyo Haneda to Brisbane will depart at 6.50am, arriving at 4.45pm
• QF79 Melbourne to Tokyo Haneda  will depart at 10.40am, arriving at 8.15pm
• QF80 Tokyo Haneda to Melbourne will depart at 9.55pm, arriving at 9.15am
• QF25 Sydney to Tokyo Haneda will depart at 8.30pm, arriving at 5.20am
• QF26 Tokyo Haneda to Sydney will depart at 10pm, arriving at 8.40am

All of these will be Airbus A330 flights, with Qantas International CEO Cam Wallace saying the new arrangement will make Qantas “the only airline to connect Australia’s three major east coast cities with Haneda Airport – right in the heart of downtown Tokyo.”

It’s worth noting that the current Sydney-Tokyo Haneda flights QF59 and QF60 are missing from this list, because Qantas has permission for only three daily flights between Australia and Tokyo Haneda; Qantas has confirmed it will redirect QF59/QF60 to Tokyo Narita.

At Haneda, Qantas passengers enjoy access to the flagship first class and business class lounges of Oneworld partner Japan Airlines as well as an excellent Cathay Pacific business class lounge.

These additional Tokyo Haneda flights were made possible by Virgin Australia’s decision to scrap its Cairns-Tokyo Haneda flights.

Both Qantas and Virgin were granted the rights for one daily flight between Australia and Tokyo Haneda in the lead-up to the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, alongside a similarly split allocation for ANA and Japan Airlines.

Of course, the pandemic changed all that, especially for Virgin Australia.

Not only did Japan shut its borders and push the Olympics back to 2021, but Virgin Australia collapsed and new owners Bain Capital scrapped the Airbus A330 jets assigned to the promised Brisbane-Tokyo flights, which were set to begin on March 31, 2020.

Virgin Australia eventually reclaimed the slot by launching Boeing 737 flights between Cairns and Tokyo Haneda in June 2023, only to announce in July 2024 the route was “no longer commercially viable,” citing lower-than-expected visitation from Japan as a key factor in its decision.