Qantas forced to add 60 new flights to meet demand for Taylor Swift’s Australian Eras tour

Taylor Swift’s upcoming tour Down Under has pushed Qantas to add more local flights to its schedule to meet demand. 

The Fearless singer is set to begin the Australian leg of her Eras world tour from 16 February, 2024. 

The airline has added 60 new flights to their schedule and 11,000 seats, according to news.com.au.

Additionally, some trans-Tasman services will be upgraded from a Boeing 737 to a larger A330 aircraft.

The new flights include eight new trips to accommodate fans in New Zealand, booked between Christchurch and Sydney and Melbourne.

The airline has added 60 new flights to their schedule and 11,000 seats 

It comes after domestic travel bookings shot up by a whopping 1500 per cent last week, after the Swift tour tickets went on sale.

Qantas will schedule the new flights between February 15 and February 27.

Swift is set to play three shows in Melbourne on February 16, 17, and 18, before heading to Sydney for another four gigs on February 23, 24, 26 and 27.

Qantas has announced that fans can use their Classic Flight Reward for the bookings during Swift’s shows in Australia. 

It comes after Taylor Swift left hundreds of thousands of Aussie fans disappointed when she announced she would not be playing shows in Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide.

It comes after domestic travel bookings shot up by a whopping 1500 per cent last week, after the Swift tour tickets went on sale 

Now a music industry insider has revealed their simply wasn’t enough time to sandwich shows in Perth, Brisbane and Adelaide.

‘With big tours like this, the directive would come from the artist,’ the insider told the West Australian.

‘Taylor would have said, “I only have time to do two cities. I don’t have time to go around the country”. It’s a directive that comes from the artist.’

Others close to the American popstar previously insisted that it was impossible for Swift to squeeze in a WA trip due to ‘global dates and production’.

Swift is coming from Japan and then heading to Singapore straight after.

With Australia’s allocation of only two weeks’ worth of dates, only two cities could feasibly be incorporated into the itinerary.

Lister explained to ABC Radio Brisbane: ‘There just wasn’t time to keep leapfrogging from city to city.’

The Pennsylvania native sold out all seven of her shows in Australia only hours after tickets were released.