The Qantas Airways Limited (ASX: QAN) share price is rising again today. This comes after its CEO Alan Joyce welcomed Australia's border reopening, declaring the country is "finally back open for business".
At the time of writing, the airline's shares are up 1.66% to $5.52. This follows a 4.6% jump on Monday when it was announced Australia would be opening up to fully vaccinated international tourists from 21 February.
Let's take a look at this week's news.
Image source: Getty Images
Restarting flights
Joyce has revealed the company is looking to restart flights from more overseas countries in the near future on the back of the border announcement.
In a report in the Australian Financial Review, Joyce was quoted as saying Australia is "finally back open for business".
We know there are lots of international tourists who want to come to Australia.
There are also a lot of business travellers who will finally be able to be in the same room as their customers or local teams after almost two years apart. This means they can now book to come here with confidence.
We will be looking at our schedules to see if we can restart flights from more international destinations sooner or add capacity to those routes we are already flying. We have the flexibility to ramp up flights in response to demand.
As Motley Fool Australia reported Monday, the Qantas share price lifted at yesterday's open amid news the reopening could be imminent.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison confirmed international visitors would be able to return after a cabinet national security meeting on Monday.
In a statement, the Government said:
Today's announcement will give certainty to our vital tourism industry, and allow them to start planning, hiring and preparing for our reopening.
In 2018-19, tourism generated more than $60 billion for the Australian economy, with more than 660,000 jobs dependent on the industry.
In other news, Qantas will soon fly to Broken Hill from Sydney for the first time. The airline will fly between the destinations with a 50 seat Q300 aircraft twice a week from April.
The company has also recently announced changes to its frequent flyer program. Fewer frequent flyer points will be required to book hotels or holiday packages. Qantas' share price gained more than 4% after this news was announced on Friday.
Qantas share price snapshot
The Qantas share price is up almost 15% in the past year and around 9% year to date. In the past week, the company's shares have soared 14%.
For perspective, the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) has returned nearly 4% over the past year.
Qantas has a market capitalisation of about $10 billion based on today's share price.
