Australian airline Qantas will fly non-stop from Perth to London starting in March 2018. These are the first scheduled non-stop flights between Australia and Europe. Flight time is expected to be around 17 hours each way and services will be on the new Qantas Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner. These aircraft will be configured for extra comfort on the long missions they will fly and tickets go on sale in April 2017.
Kangaroo Route
The route between Australia and the UK is referred to as the Kangaroo Route as the original flights had many sectors or hops. Qantas commenced flying internationally in 1935 and services to London were operated in conjunction with Imperial Airways, originally on land planes and then on flying boats.
Image via Qantas
Perth to London
This will be the longest flight operated by a Boeing 787 Dreamliner. Once Singapore Airlines opens Singapore to New York in 2018 and Qatar Airways opens Doha to Auckland in 2017, the Qantas flight will be the third longest in the world.
Passengers coming to Australia can stop in Perth for a few days before continuing on to the east coast. This will increase tourism in Western Australia. Qantas expect passengers from the east coast will fly domestically to Perth and connect to the London services there.
Overall Thoughts
Non-stop flights between Australia and Europe are a dream come true for the Australian people. New aircraft are reported in the Australian media regularly and their potential to operate non-stop to Europe always comes up. This is going to be an excellent and successful service! Thank you for reading and if you have any comments or questions, please leave them below.
Like planes? See my “Does anyone remember” series.
Flight reviews your thing? Mine are all indexed here.
Follow me on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
they’re going to fly to London City Airport (LCY)? I don’t think so…….
They’re not, they will presumably fly to LHR. The TravelUpdate tweet did say LCY, but that was an error obviously 🙂 Thanks for reading and for the comment!
There are many things I could think of which could count as a ‘dream come true’ but 17 hours in economy on a B787 is not one of them …..
Hahaha! I completely agree… perhaps I should have written, “a dream come true for those flying in Premium Economy or Business Class”. I have no intention of ever subjecting myself to 17 hours in Economy Class if I can avoid it. By the way, I enjoy your site – you are directly responsible for my use of Kaligo, Rocketmiles and a certain QR ticket to Auckland in April. Thanks for reading and for the comment!