Australia’s Qantas is entering a joint venture with American Airlines which is now pending final approval. Due to this, it has been announced that the first two new routes will be Brisbane to Chicago and Brisbane to San Francisco.
Once again the aircraft of choice will be the Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner, offering the latest seating in business class, premium economy and economy class.
Brisbane to Chicago
Of the two routes, the service to Chicago O’Hare is the most exciting. It will be the first non-stop flight from Australia to the windy city, connecting to the American Airlines hub there.
Once launched, it will be the fourth longest route in the world, clocking in at 16 hours and 20 minutes for the 14,326 kilometre distance. Services will open with a flight four times each week.
Brisbane to San Francisco
Qantas have served San Francisco for many years, with their first Boeing 707s in 1959 serving the city from Sydney. Brisbane will become the third Australian east-coast city with non-stop service when flights begin.
It is planned to start out with thrice weekly service, which means there will be 14 services per week in total from Australia. Brisbane will add to Sydney’s daily QF service and Melbourne’s four times weekly service.
Overall Thoughts
Brisbane to Chicago and San Francisco will open things up for people living in Queensland. They will no longer have to connect through Sydney or Melbourne, which will save quite a lot of time. The Qantas press release also indicates one of the new Dreamliners will be named Longreach after the town where Qantas was founded back in 1920.
The joint venture between Qantas and American Airlines should also see American take up a transpacific route. The smart money is on something like Los Angeles to Auckland, which should be viable with both airlines marketing services.
What do you think of the new Qantas routes from Brisbane to Chicago and San Francisco? Thank you for reading and if you have any comments or questions, please leave them below.
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Featured image by GeXeS via Wikimedia Commons.
