From left: Georgia Blackburn, Qantas Regional GM UK, Europe, Middle East and Africa; Tegan Brink, Australian High Commissioner to South Africa; Michi Messner, Qantas Regional Manager Africa and Brett Elmer, First Secretary Australian High Commission to South Africa.

Travel industry members joined Qantas’s international and local teams celebrating the carrier’s inaugural A380 Sydney-Joburg flight at The Leonardo’s Alto234 urban rooftop bar on October 1.

Georgia Blackburn, Qantas Regional GM for the UK, Europe, Middle East and Africa, said Qantas flights to South Africa had come far since its very first flight in 1952, which transported 27 passengers over two days and 18 hours. Qantas’s inaugural A380 flight from Sydney arrived in Johannesburg on September 30 with over 480 passengers.

Tegan Brink, Australian High Commissioner to South Africa, said the A380 flights were in response to the rapidly increasing demand for travel between the two countries, especially for visiting family and friends.

“Over 200 000 Australians were born in South Africa, That’s 1,5% of our population. And in the past 12 months, 110 000 Australians have travelled to South Africa and 68 000 South Africans have travelled in the other direction,” said Brink. “This (demand) has rebounded from, and gone further than pre-COVID travel levels.”