It’s a good day for overseas travel with both Qantas and Emirates adding easier ways to get to a spate of in-demand destinations.

Qantas and Jetstar are set to grow their international network out of Sydney, with new direct routes to India and Korea taking off this year, accelerating NSW’s post-COVID tourism recovery.

The national carrier will operate four weekly return flights from Sydney to Bengaluru (formerly known as Bangalore) from 14 September, using its widebody Airbus A330 aircraft.

These will be the first non-stop flights between Australia and southern India by any airline and will cut almost three hours off the current fastest travel time from Sydney to Bengaluru, growing technology and financial services hub.

Qantas also intends to enter into a codeshare agreement with IndiGo, India’s largest domestic carrier, which will give customers improved one-stop access to more than 50 Indian cities.

The proposed agreement will mean Qantas passengers can transit from Qantas flights in Bengaluru, Delhi, or Singapore onto IndiGo services to other major Indian cities as well as smaller ones such as Pune and Goa.

Qantas and Jetstar will also both launch direct flights to Seoul’s Incheon International Airport later this year, making Jetstar the only low-cost carrier to fly direct to South Korea from Sydney, with Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner flights operating from 2 November 2022 three times per week.

Qantas will begin direct flights between Sydney and Seoul from 10 December 2022 with its A330 aircraft, marking the first Qantas scheduled service to Seoul since January 2008.

“It’s clear that Australia is back on the map for international travellers,” Qantas Group CEO Alan Joyce said.

“Demand for our international flights has rebounded since borders reopened, and that’s giving us the confidence to launch these new routes together with the marketing support from Destination New South Wales.”

Meanwhile, Emirates is ramping up its global operations with the restart of services to four destinations, including Bali, London Stansted, Rio de Janeiro, and Buenos Aires, plus more services to Nigeria, Mauritius and Singapore.

The route restarts follow the airline’s recent promise to increase flights between Melbourne and Dubai (where passengers can connect to the newly restarted routes) from 1 May, with fourteen weekly services from Dubai to Melbourne, growing Emirates’ seats to over 1,000 a day totalling 700,000 a year between the airline’s global Dubai hub and Victoria.

With Australia being the third-largest destination for Emirates’ A380 operations, the airline is committed to increasing flights Down Under, which will soar to 42 weekly flights in May, with the airline’s flagship flying to Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.

Starting from 1 May 2022 Emirates will operate five weekly flights to Bali, utilising a two-class Boeing 777-300ER aircraft, scaling up its operations from 1 July to serve the island destination with a daily service.

From 1 August Emirates will resume flight operations to London Stansted with five weekly flights, utilising Emirates’ Boeing 777-300ER aircraft fitted with the ‘Game Changer’ First Class product, increasing to from 1 September to offer a daily flight.

By October 2022, the airline will be serving the UK with 110 weekly flights, including six times daily to London Heathrow; double daily A380 service to Gatwick; three times daily to Manchester, including a double daily A380 service (starting 1 October); double daily service to Birmingham; five weekly flights to Newcastle (with the fifth weekly flight starting from 1 July); and a daily service to Glasgow.

On top of this, the airline will operate four weekly flights to Buenos Aires via Rio de Janeiro, on its Boeing 777-300ER aircraft from 2 November, scaling up from 1 February 2023 to a daily service.

Emirates is also ramping up its services to Lagos with 11 weekly flights, starting from 1 July 2022 increasing to a double daily service from 1 September, taking the airline’s services to pre-pandemic levels as well as increasing its services to Nigeria’s capital city, Abuja, to offer 5 weekly flights starting 1 May and then a daily service from 1 September.

In line with rising demand, the airline will be scaling up flights to Mauritius from daily to nine weekly flights between 9 April 2022 and the end of June 2022, and then moving up to double daily flights from July 2022.

The airline will also increase passenger services to Singapore from seven weekly flights to 14 weekly flights, starting on 23 June 2022.