Qantas to Run Daily Non-Stop Flights from Australia to London
The new route has just gone on sale.
Arguably the worst part of travel is the bit where you actually have to travel. Sitting in an over-cramped, over-air-conditioned metal tube for 20+ hours almost makes post-pasta swims in the Mediterranean seem too much trouble than it's worth (almost). But until we're at The Fifth Element stage where we can just hop in a capsule and get knocked out cold for the duration of the journey, we'll just have to be content with airlines' attempts at cutting down flight times and transfers.
So it was welcome news for Aussie travellers when, in December last year, Qantas announced it would introduce a direct flight from Australia to Europe. And now the non-stop flights have officially gone on sale, with the first one set to take to the air on March 24, 2018.
The new route will take passengers from Perth to London daily in approximately 17 hours, thanks to their new Dreamliner 787-9 aircraft, which is set to start flying in October. It will be the first and only direct flight from Australia to Europe. It will also be considerably quicker than their current route, which, with their partnership with Emirates, includes a stopover in Dubai. Melburnians will be able to fly to London via Perth, with Qantas also swapping out its daily Melbourne-Dubai-London flight for a daily Melbourne-Perth-London service. Travellers from other cities will have the option to go via Perth when booking too.
"This is a game-changing route flown by a game-changing aircraft," Qantas CEO Alan Joyce said in a Qantas press release. "Australians have never had a direct link to Europe before, so the opportunities this opens up are huge."
We first reported on this back in October 2017, when Qantas were still in negotiations with the Western Australian Government and Perth Airport to lock down the new route. It seems they managed to reach an agreement, as the new Perth-London flight will operate from Qantas' domestic terminal at Perth Airport, to make the stopover as smooth as possible for travellers coming from other states. Qantas will also build a new international transit lounge at the airport.
The layout for the airline's new Dreamliner fleet will be two-thirds the size of the 747s they will eventually replace and have only 236 seats (as opposed to the 747's 364 seats). Economy will have a 3:3:3 seat situation (as opposed to the 3:4:3), as well as USB ports and an extra inch of leg room. Hurrah for leg room!
The first Perth to London route will take off on in March 24, 2018, and flights are on sale now.
