Widebodies not just
for long haul — June 2018

With great fanfare at the end of March, Qantas launched the first non-stop air service between Australia and the UK. Covering 14,500km in a little over 17 hours in a 236-seat 787-9, the flight from Perth to London is one of the longest commercial routes in the world (vying with Qatar’s Doha-Auckland service).

This is a far cry from the original “kangaroo” route, which took four days with seven intermediary stops. Qantas CEO, Alan Joyce stated “Qantas has been preparing for this moment for 98 years… since we were founded in 1921”. Qantas would probably prefer to be able to operate London to Sydney non-stop. But at 17,000km that is still unlikely to be commercial for some years yet; and it is 1,500km further than Singapore-New York, which SIA struggled to operate profitably but is planning to reopen this winter using its new A350-900ULR (with only 162 seats).