Qantas Group seeks unrestricted passenger capacity to Canada

By Andrew Curran.

The Qantas Group has asked Australia’s International Air Services Commission (IASC) for unrestricted passenger capacity on the Australia – Canada country pair. This follows a 2024 amendment to the air services agreement allowing this. The company filed its application on March 20, 2026.

IASC is the Australian Government agency responsible for allocating international passenger capacity entitlements to Australian airlines.

“Qantas is applying for a new Determination under section 7 of the Act allocating it unrestricted passenger capacity on the Canada route for a period of 99 years,” writes Megan Morris, Qantas’s Head of Group Regulatory International Affairs. “This will replace Determination [2023] IASC 133 and Determination [2025] IASC 108 on the Canada route.”

“Qantas is also requesting that the new Determination include conditions under section 15(1)(e) of the Act to allow American Airlines and WestJet Airlines to code share on Qantas-operated flights between Australia and Canada,” she adds.

“The ability for capacity to be used by Qantas to provide joint services with any wholly-owned subsidiary and by any wholly-owned subsidiary of the Qantas Group to provide joint services with Qantas is also requested.”

The only Qantas wholly-owned subsidiary with aircraft capable of flying the Australia – Canada country pair is Jetstar.

Two airlines on the Australia - Canada country pair

Currently, Qantas and Air Canada compete on the Australia – Canada country pair. Qantas operates year-round B787-9 round-trips between Sydney (SYD) and Vancouver (YVR). Frequencies vary between three times weekly and daily, depending on the season.

Air Canada is maintaining daily B777-300LR round-trips on the same city-pair throughout 2026. It also operates six weekly B787-9 round-trips on the Brisbane (BNE) – Vancouver city pair, rising to daily flights later in the year.

The most recent Australian Government data, covering the month of October 2025, shows Qantas had 6,129 seats available on the Sydney – Vancouver city pair that month. It filled 5,487 (or 87.4%) of them, with flights to Australia far fuller than flights to Canada.

Measured by seat capacity, Air Canada is the dominant operator on the country-pair. The same data shows that airline had 34,592 seats available across its two Australia routes in October. It filled 29,705 (or 86%) of them. Like Qantas, Air Canada’s flights to Australia were fuller than the return run home.

Morris did not say why Qantas was seeking unrestricted capacity, other than that securing it would reflect the 2024 air services agreement update.

“We request that this application be considered against the ‘reasonable capability criterion’ as defined in section 8 of the Minister’s Policy Statement,” she wrote.

Is Canada on Jetstar's horizon?

Jetstar has eleven B787-8s, which are currently being refurbished to extend their operational life. Those aircraft are kept busy servicing routes between Australia and Asia. However, the airline is taking delivery of dozens of long-range Airbus narrow bodies, giving it far greater network flexibility in the future. Sending more A321NXs and XLRs into Asia would free up the Boeing wide bodies.

Jetstar CEO Step Tully has previously expressed interest in flying to North America, including name checking Las Vegas (LAS) as a possible destination.

Aero South Pacific has contacted Jetstar for comment.

Meanwhile, Morris added that Qantas would seek to cancel the current capacity allocation determinations if the new application is successful.

You can read the full application here.

Photo: Qantas.

Contact the writer: andrew@aerosouthpacific.com