Qantas Airways has agreed to pay $79 million in compensation and a fine for selling tickets on thousands of cancelled flights.

Qantas Airways has lost its challenge to a court ruling that the Australian flag carrier had illegally fired 1,700 baggage handlers, cleaners and other ground staff at the height of pandemic travel disruptions.

The boss of Australian airline Qantas says he will leave his job immediately — two months earlier than planned — following a series of embarrassing revelations about the company, including allegations it sold tickets for flights that had already been canceled.

Qantas says its chief financial officer Vanessa Hudson will become its next chief executive.

Australia is fully open to vaccinated travelers after Western Australia became the last state to lift border restrictions.

International tourists and business travelers are arriving in Australia after it lifted its final travel restrictions for fully vaccinated passengers.

Country music star Garth Brooks says he is reassessing whether to continue his stadium tour in light of the rising number of coronavirus cases across the country.

(AP Photo/Rick Rycroft, File)CANBERRA – Qantas Airways does not expect to resume international travel apart from New Zealand until late October after the Australian population is vaccinated for COVID-19, the airline’s chief executive said on Thursday. The Sydney-based airline had been selling seats on international flights from July 1. But there has been a huge surge in COVID-19 cases around the world since those July flights went on sale in early January, Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce said. Qantas still expected a “material increase” in flights between Australia and New Zealand by July, Joyce said. AdQantas on Thursday posted a 1.47 billion Australian dollar ($1.17 billion) statutory loss for the six months through December and a AU$6.9 billion ($5.5 billion) fall in revenue due to pandemic restrictions.

With coronavirus cases spiking in the U.S. and Europe, the financial outlook of the world’s airlines is getting worse. The latest estimate breaks down to airlines losing $66 for every passenger carried this year. However, the trade group now sees a quicker recovery. Last year, airlines carried 4.5 billion passengers, according to the trade group. It estimates that number will plunge to 1.8 billion this year, then rise to 2.8 billion next year.

WELLINGTON – International air travel could come booming back next year but with a new rule: Travelers to certain countries must be vaccinated against the coronavirus before they can fly. But countries in Asia and the Pacific, in particular, are determined not to let their hard-won gains against the virus evaporate. "But certainly for international visitors coming out, and people leaving the country, we think that’s a necessity,” he said. “With the world coming closer to coronavirus vaccines and negative tests also becoming requirements for lifting travelers from self-quarantines in countries across the world, airlines are feeling the need for an effective system to screen passengers for vaccinations and tests,” Chung said. Many people are hoping that vaccinations will become widely available next year, paving the way for a broader reopening of international air travel.

Qantas Chief Executive Officer Alan Joyce walks through the airline's headquarters following a results announcement in Sydney, Thursday, Aug. 20, 2020. Qantas Airways announced that the pandemic cost it 4 billion Australian dollars ($2.9 billion) in revenue in the last fiscal year and warned that international travel won't resume before mid 2021. (Dean Lewins/AAP Image via AP)CANBERRA Qantas Airways said Thursday the pandemic cost it 4 billion Australian dollars ($2.9 billion) in revenue in the last fiscal year and warned that international travel won't resume before mid-2021. The airline recorded a AU$771 million ($554 million) pre-tax profit in the first half of the fiscal year before the pandemic struck. Joyce said Qantas was in a better financial position than many airlines to survive the pandemic.

WELLINGTON Qantas plans to cut at least 6,000 jobs and keep 15,000 more workers on extended furloughs as Australia's largest airline tries to survive the coronavirus pandemic. Qantas announced a plan Thursday to reduce costs by billions of dollars and raise fresh capital. The plan includes grounding 100 planes for a year or more and immediately retiring its six remaining Boeing 747 planes. Chief Executive Alan Joyce said the airline has to become smaller as it braces for several years of much lower revenues. This crisis has still hit us very, very hard and the impact will be felt for a long time," Joyce said.