Qantas has announced it will begin non-stop flights between Perth and London from March 2018.The 14,498 kilometre route will be the first regular passenger service to directly link Australia and Europe, and will be flown by Qantas’s new 787-9 Dreamliner aircraft. The flights are expected to run 14 times per week, and will take about 17 hours, depending on weather conditions.
Qantas chief executive officer, Alan Joyce, is hoping that the direct flight will attract Europe-bound travellers from the eastern states and South Australia. “Australians have never had a direct link to Europe before so the opportunities this opens up are huge,” Joyce said. “Our modelling shows that people from the east coast as well as South Australia would fly domestically to Perth to connect to our non-stop London service,” he said.
“Some will take the opportunity to break their journey, whether it’s for business meetings in Perth, to holiday or to visit family.” The new route will use Qantas’s existing domestic terminals in Perth, meaning significant upgrades are required. Engine failures on 787 Dreamliners prompt ANA to overhaul entire fleet
Barnett welcomed the deal between Perth airport and Qantas as “game-changing”, and said it could inject between $9m and $36m into the state’s economy each year. He hoped Perth’s sizeable British expat community would help bring visitors to WA. “Today’s announcement is fantastic for West Australians with the non-stop service making travel to the UK more appealing, and over time it is expected it will open up the potential for direct routes to and from other European cities,” he said.
“The tourism benefits to the state are enormous. The service will create opportunities for people to stop over in Perth for a day or two if en route to or from another Australian destination.” The 787-9 Dreamliners can carry up to 236 passengers, and Qantas says the route will become its longest anywhere in the world, and the third-longest for any airline. Flights will begin in March 2018, Qantas says, and tickets will go on sale in April 2017.
“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,” Joyce said.
