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Qantas confirms Perth-London launch after settling dispute with city’s airport
December 16th 2016
Qantas Airways this week confirmed it would launch a “game-changing” Perth-London B787-9 nonstop service in 2018. Read More »
At 7,892nms, the 17-hour flight will be the world’s third longest commercial service, after Emirates Airline’s and Qatar Airways’ flights to Auckland. It will be Qantas’ longest route following Sydney-Dallas.
“When Qantas created the Kangaroo Route to London in 1947, it took four days and nine stops. Now it will take 17 hours from Perth non-stop. This is a game-changing route flown by a game-changing aircraft,” said Qantas Group CEO, Alan Joyce. “When we designed the interior of our 787s, we wanted to make sure passengers would be comfortable on the extended missions of which the aircraft was capable.”
Qantas has confirmed a three-class configuration for the Dreamliner: 42 business, 28 seven-abreast premium economy and 166 nine-abreast economy class seats.
Joyce has previously said the route might not operate with full payload year-round. “As you can imagine, sometimes the winds are heavy and like our Sydney-Dallas service in parts of the year we can’t take a full load. That’s fine because the economics superbly work for the entire year. The lower seat configuration does help us with some of the routes that we are considering,” he said.
Qantas’ Perth-London link will operate from Perth Airport’s Terminal 3, which handles domestic services only. After a reported disagreement between the airline and the airport over funding, the airport operator agreed to reconfigure Terminal 3 with customs and border protection facilities after the government of Western Australia said it would contribute A$14 million (US$10.2 million) towards the upgrade.
Qantas will consolidate all its operations from Perth, including flights to Auckland and Singapore, in Terminals 3 and 4 which will avoid the need for a bus transfer across the airport for the airline’s connecting passengers.
Eventually, Perth Airport plans to streamline all international flights, including Qantas services, in a new international terminal planned for operation from December 31, 2025.
Perth is not the first Australian gateway to receive Qantas Dreamliner service. From December 15, the carrier will launch six a week Melbourne-Los Angeles B787-9 flights, lifting the route’s frequency from nine (seven A380s; two B747s) to 13 (seven A380s; six B787s) a week.
The frequency and equipment change will add 1,400 seats a week on the route. Joyce has said the Australia-U.S. market has grown 10% this year, with Qantas tapping the opportunity with its resumption of Sydney-San Francisco flights and conversion of Sydney-Dallas to daily operations.
