Qantas cancels all international flights other than those to New Zealand until the end of October

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Qantas has cancelled all international flights until October apart from those between Australia and New Zealand, the airline has announced.

Qantas said it planned to schedule some flights to New Zealand in upcoming months ahead of the expected opening of a trans-Tasman bubble.

But Australia's largest airline said it was cancelling the rest of its overseas schedule as Trade Minister Simon Birmingham revealed on Wednesday the country's borders will remain closed for another four months.  

Qantas has cancelled all international flights until October apart from those between Australia and New Zealand. Qantas planes are pictured at Sydney's Kingsford Smith in March

Qantas CEO Alan Joyce. The airline said it planned to schedule some flights to New Zealand in upcoming months

'With Australia’s borders set to remain closed for some time, we have cancelled most international flights until late October,' a spokeswoman for the airline said.

'We still have some flights scheduled across the Tasman in the coming months, with the expected travel bubble between Australia and New Zealand.

'Should travel between Australia and other countries open up and demand returns, we can add more flights back into our schedule.' 

The airline said it was in the process of advising travel agents and passengers booked onto affected flights of the changes - with the Qantas website then expected to update with the new schedule.

Mr Birmingham said on Wednesday the government was unlikely to reopen the border to international travellers until next year - but would look to relax entry rules for students and other long-term visitors. 

Australia has been largely successful in containing the spread of the coronavirus, which it attributes to curbs on international travel and tough social-distancing rules.

Mr Birmingham said a quarantine rule for returning citizens could be applied to international students and other visitors who plan to stay for a long period of time. 

'We can simply work through the 14-day quarantine periods that have worked so well in terms of returning Australians to this country safely,' Mr Birmingham said in a speech to the National Press Club

'We can simply work through the 14-day quarantine periods that have worked so well in terms of returning Australians to this country safely,' Mr Birmingham said in a speech to the National Press Club.   

The return of international students will be a boost for universities facing big financial losses with the border closed as international education is Australia's fourth-largest foreign exchange earner, worth $38billion a year.

Australia has had more than 7,300 cases of the coronavirus and 102 people have died from COVID-19, the disease it causes.

It recorded its biggest daily rise in new infections in more than a month on Wednesday, with the most of them in Victoria, the second most populous state.

Victoria reported 21 new cases overnight, of which 15 are returned travellers in quarantine, taking the total tally for the day to 22 cases, with some states yet to report their data

'Go to Byron instead of Bali': Australians are urged to take 'backyard holidays' to help out hard-hit tourism and hospitality sectors 

By Australian Associated Press 

With international travel forbidden in the foreseeable future, the government is urging the nearly 10 million Australians who travelled overseas last year to look at their own backyards for their next holiday.

The more than $65 billion they spent in foreign destinations would go a long way to helping domestic tourism operators reeling from the bushfires and coronavirus pandemic.

And it's half as much again as tourists usually spend in Australia each year.

The tourism and hospitality sectors have been the hardest hit by the virus.

About three in 10 accommodation and food sector jobs have been lost since mid-March, the latest data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics shows.

Just 750 foreign tourists arrived in Australia in May, compared with nearly 458,000 in the same month last year.

Tourism Minister Simon Birmingham says there's an enormous potential to replace the vanished overseas travellers with Australians.

'For those Australians who can afford to do so, we want them to feel an almost patriotic duty to get out and support the jobs and small businesses of their fellow citizens by having whatever Aussie holiday they can,' he told the National Press Club on Wednesday.

Just 750 foreign tourists arrived in Australia in May, compared with nearly 458,000 in the same month last year. Pictured: empty baggage check-in lines inside in International terminal at Tullamarine Airport, Melbourne

'That could mean instead of the beaches of Bali, it could be the beaches of Byron Bay.

'I hope Australians use this time to travel across our magical continent and become better-informed ambassadors of all that we have to offer.'

The closure of state borders has been a sticking point in preventing Australians from holidaying farther afield throughout the country.

South Australia reopened its borders to people from Western Australia, the Northern Territory and Tasmania from Wednesday.

Queensland is expected to reopen to interstate visitors from July 10, midway through the NSW school holidays.

Senator Birmingham also indicated the government wants to better encourage and highlight Indigenous tourism once Australia does open its borders to foreign visitors.

'The stories of the oldest living culture in the world should be anchored in the experiences our nation shares with cultural tourists from around the world,' he said.