One-hop flight from Perth to UK
Qantas has started direct flights between Australia and London, passing a major milestone by reducing to 17 hours a trip that once took 12 days.
Flight QF9, which originated in Melbourne, landed at London Heathrow on Sunday following a 14,498km trip from Perth, according to the UK airport operator’s website.
The route marks the first nonstop passenger service between the continents, putting Europe’s financial centre one night’s sleep from the capital of Australia’s mineral wealth and the operations of resources companies including BHP and Rio Tinto.
For Qantas, the Perth connection is a high-profile test for a planned ultra-long-haul network that the airline hopes will span the world by 2022.
To succeed, the route must defy the boom-and-bust com-
14,498 kilometres is the flying distance from Perth to London, covered in just 17 hours by Qantas’s new nonstop service
modities cycle that has preyed on Western Australia. Qantas needs business travellers to pay up for the shorter, one-hop flight to London rather than make a stop in Asia or the Middle East.
“You have the resources sector on both sides, you have banks, you have lawyers that all want to fly fast and reliably and comfortably,” said Rico Merkert, professor of transport and supply chain management at the University of Sydney’s business school. “And I think they’re prepared to pay the premium.”
Mining companies in Western Australia dig up a third of the world’s iron ore and bring in some of the largest hauls of gems and rare earths.
The sector also supports financial services firms such as Hartleys, whose Perth-based director of corporate finance, Steve Kite, was booked on Sunday’s flight for just a four-day trip. “It’s effectively an overnight flight and that feels like I’m saving a lot of time,” said Kite.
Qantas CEO Alan Joyce is betting he can make money from the daily service by stripping excess weight from a Boeing Dreamliner and stacking it with top-tier passengers.
Not everyone is convinced of the route’s commercial future. Aircraft leaving Perth for London would need feeder passengers from around Australia, said Volodymyr Bilotkach, author of the book The Economics of Airlines. But flying from Sydney to London via Perth saved little time over a transfer in Asia or the Gulf, he said.
Qantas spokesman Andrew McGinnes said bookings on the new route “have been strong” and corporate clients in eastern Australia had indicated they would stop in Perth for meetings on their way to London.
Qantas has challenged aircraft manufacturers Boeing and Airbus to build a jet by 2022 that can fly fully loaded from Sydney to London without a break.