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Virgin Atlantic considers nonstop flights to Australia
October 26th 2018
Heathrow Airport-based Virgin Atlantic Airways hopes to fly nonstop to Australia "as soon as possible", airline founder, Richard Branson, told Your Money this week. Read More »
The Virgin Group carrier intends to compete with Qantas Airways on the London-Perth route, Branson said. Rival Qantas made history in April when its first non-stop Perth-London flight, a journey of 17 hours, touched down at London’ Heathrow airport. It was the first flight to link Australia and Europe without an intermediate stop in either Asia or the Middle East.
Like Qantas, Virgin aims to use a B787-9 on the 14,500km journey. The UK carrier operates a fleet of 17 of the type. From Perth, Virgin Atlantic passengers could connect to Virgin Australia’s domestic and trans-Tasman network. Virgin used to fly A340-600s from Heathrow to Sydney via Hong Kong but terminated the leg to Australia in 2014, citing unprofitability.
In the interim, Qantas is expected to announce a nonstop Perth-Paris route later this year before attempting direct flights from Sydney and Melbourne to Europe from 2020.
