Australian airline Qantas expects to resume international flights to key “COVID-safe” markets by mid-December, including North America and the United Kingdom. This hinges on the Australian government’s plan to reopen international borders once an 80 percent COVID-19 vaccination threshold is achieved by December, the airline said in a statement on Thursday. Qantas Group hopes to restart flights to COVID-safe destinations from mid-December, using Boeing 787s to fly to Singapore, the United States, Japan, the United Kingdom, and Canada; as well as Airbus A330s, 737s, and A320s for services to Fiji. The carrier also hopes to see the two-way Australia-New Zealand travel bubble restart at the same time. “The prospect of flying overseas might feel a long way off, especially with New South Wales and Victoria in lockdown, but the current pace of the vaccine rollout means we should have a lot more freedom in a few months’ time,” Qantas Group …