Qantas Plan to Launch Direct Flights to New York and London by 2022
Stopover-free travel from Australia's east coast could be just around the corner.
By this stage, most of us have come to terms with the fact that jetting off to USA or Europe is a seriously long slog, made worse by unavoidable (sometimes long, always painful) stopovers. But that European or American trip could soon become a whole lot more bearable, with Qantas announcing plans to launch direct flights between the east coast and both London and New York, by 2022.
While the airline's already revealed it'll run nonstop flights from Perth to London starting March 24, 2018, the extra distance involved with trips from the east coast capitals is something that none of today's planes can handle. Right now, the world's longest direct flight clocks in at just over 17 hours and 14,529 kilometres, running between Doha and Auckland on a Boeing 777-200LR.
So, to realise its grand plans for east coast Aussies, Qantas has put the call out to Airbus and Boeing, the world's biggest aircraft manufacturers, to make a plane that can go the distance. In numbers, that's a 20-hour and 20-minute stint between Sydney and London (16,983 kilometres), and an 18-hour and seven-minute journey from Sydney to New York.
The airline's done its homework, analysing a decade's worth of wind and weather data to confirm the routes are actually possible. Now, all it needs are the planes to fly it.
Via the Australian Financial Review.
