Airlines pursue longest ranges

Global airlines are aiming for ultralong-haul flights and Airbus expects more carriers to order planes that can fly from one side of the Earth to the other.

The European aircraft maker saw demand for 50 to 100 orders for a longer-range version of the A350 model, capable of flying from Sydney to London nonstop, Airbus chief salesman Eric Schulz said.

Airbus and rival Boeing were talking to Qantas, Australia’s biggest carrier, for a plane that could fly the Sydney-London route without a break, company officials said. Called Project Sunrise, it would put Rio de Janeiro, Cape Town, New York and Paris within direct reach of Australia’s eastern seaboard, Qantas said. Air New Zealand could also consider a longer-range version of the A350, Schulz said.

“The heart of that long-range market will continue to be in Asia,” Randy Tinseth, vice-president of marketing for Boeing, said separately. The US plane maker was still in talks with Qantas about the exact plane that could fly Sydney-London nonstop, Tinseth said.

One long-range market with particular potential was AsiaLatin America, he said.

A wave of ultralong flights that will get you halfway around the world in one hop is pushing aircraft manufacturers to come up with planes that can ferry people for 20 hours nonstop. Qantas has started a PerthLondon 17-hour service using a Boeing Dreamliner and Singapore Airlines is reviving the Singapore-New York service, a 19-hour flight.

Qantas was “getting very confident” about such longrange flights, CEO Alan Joyce said. “The economics are working. Perth-London is making money from day one.”

The airline’s first PerthLondon flight was in March, signalling the beginning of the end of the kangaroo route, in which make aircraft make the journey from Europe to Australia in a series of hops.