The decision would mean the entire 22,000 workforce would be back on the job by December, six months earlier than forecast.

Qantas and its discount airline Jetstar announced this morning they would bring forward the restart of more international flights to popular destinations from Sydney and operate regular flights to Delhi, the first commercial flights for Qantas between Australia and India in almost a decade.

Two of its Airbus A380 aircraft, which had been in storage for most of the pandemic would be brought back on line.

The company said the faster ramp up followed the Federal and New South Wales governments confirming that international borders would reopen from November 1 and the decision by the NSW Government to remove quarantine requirements for fully vaccinated arrivals – which significantly increases travel demand.

“These decisions – combined with plans by states and territories to reopen domestic borders – support all Qantas and Jetstar workers based in Australia and New Zealand who are currently stood down to return to work by early December 2021. “This includes around 5000 employees linked to domestic flying and around 6,000 linked to international flying.

“Due to extended border closures, many international crew have been stood down since the start of the pandemic. Combined with operational and corporate employees already working, the group’s 22,000 employees are able to return to work in December, which wasn’t expected to happen until June 2022.

The company has brought forward schedules from Sydney to destinations including Fiji, Johannesburg, Nadi, Phuket and Singapore.

Discussions were also underway with the Indonesian Government about resuming flights for fully vaccinated Australians to Bali with reduced or no quarantine requirements, which would mean the resumption of Jetstar and Qantas flights from Sydney to the holiday island months earlier than scheduled.

Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce said the take up of vaccinations meant it could reinstate workers much earlier than we expected.

“This is the best news we’ve had in almost two years and it will make a massive difference to thousands of our people who finally get to fly again,’’ Joyce said.

“We know that Australians are keen to get overseas and see friends and family or have a long awaited holiday, so bringing forward the restart of flights to these popular international destinations will give customers even more options to travel this summer.’’