Qantas to fly from London to Perth non-stop

Qantas is launching a new service that will enable passengers to fly from London to Australia non-stop for the first time.

The new direct route from London to Perth is due to launch in March 2018 and will be serviced by Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner aircraft. The 9,000-mile (14,498km) flight will take 17 hours.

Perth will be a hub for passengers from eastern Australia going to the UK, according to the country’s tourism minister Steven Ciobo, who said the new service would boost employment and tourism in Australia.

Ciobo said the sector supports 580,000 jobs and is growing three times faster than the rest of the national economy, and added that the UK is Australia’s third-largest source of international visitors, with 660,000 people travelling from there to Australia in 2015.

History-making

Qantas Group CEO Alan Joyce said the history-making route would be a watershed for travel, tourism and trade.

“When Qantas created the Kangaroo Route to London in 1947, it took four days and nine stops. Now it will take just 17 hours from Perth non-stop.

“This is a game-changing route flown by a game-changing aircraft. Australians have never had a direct link to Europe before, so the opportunities this opens up are huge.

“It’s great news for travellers because it will make it easier to get to London. It’s great news for Western Australia because it will bring jobs and tourism. And it’s great news for the nation, because it will bring us closer to one of our biggest trade partners and sources of visitors.”

The Dreamliners used on the route will carry 236 passengers, and the new flights will become the longest non-stop passenger route in the world. The current longest non-stop scheduled flight is Emirates Airlines’ 14,200-kilometre Dubai-to-Auckland service, which takes 16 hours 35 minutes.