The Sunshine State’s tourism industry will get a boost from 1 December 2022, when Qantas will resume three weekly flights between Brisbane Airport and Tokyo’s Haneda Airport.

Ryan Both, the Executive General Manager of Aviation at Brisbane Airport, said that restoring non-stop flights between Tokyo and Brisbane would open this pipeline and benefit local businesses and the tourism economy.

The route was secured thanks to the Attracting Aviation Investment Fund, a cooperative initiative between the Queensland government and the aviation industry that has so far brought in over $200 million to promote tourism in Queensland.

The launch of Qantas flights was hailed as a significant event for Brisbane and the state of Queensland by Stirling Hinchliffe, the minister responsible for tourism in Queensland.

He stated that in the year ending in December 2019, “Japan constituted the third-largest market by expenditures and the fourth-largest by visits to Queensland before COVID-19.”

There were around 219,000 Japanese tourists in 2019, who spent $459.7 million during their visits and stayed an average of 15.8 days.

CEO of Qantas International, Andrew David, believes the new service between Haneda and Brisbane will increase tourism in Australia’s Sunshine State.

Forward reservations are tracking well, especially for the forthcoming Australian holiday period. He noted, “Qantas is the first airline to run commercial scheduled flights between Haneda and Brisbane.”

In the aftermath of the 11 October news that border restrictions were being lifted, there has been an uptick in interest among Australian tourists in visiting Japan, with 38% saying they want to do so within the next six months.

On 1 December, Qantas will launch its new service, which will see Airbus A330-300 planes depart Brisbane for Tokyo on Mondays, Thursdays, and Saturdays at 11:50 a.m.