With Singapore blocked off, Qantas is getting creative with its London service, bypassing other countries all together in favor of a technical stop at a historic Australian airport.
Nonstop Service…From Darwin To London Heathrow
Qantas 1/2, its flagship nonstop service between Sydney and London, typically stops in Singapore in each direction. This is not only to pick up and drop off passengers, but because the A380 cannot complete the flight nonstop.
But among the aggressive steps Singapore has taken to combat COVID-19, transit passengers are no longer allowed. With Qantas shut out of Singapore, it had to get creative.
Darwin (DRW), a historic airport in Australia’s Northern Territory opened in 1919 and used as as a strategic launch point in World War II, will temporarily serve as the refueling point.
QF1 Sydney to Darwin dep 5:00PM arr 9:15PM
QF1 Darwin to London dep 11:00PM arr 6:15AM+1QF2 London to Darwin dep 10:05PM arr 11:45PM+1
QF2 Darwin to Sydney dep 1:15AM+2 arr 7:00AM+2
The journey from Sydney to Darwin is 1,957 miles and from Darwin to London is 8,620 miles. Qantas will not sell service on the domestic sectors alone.
If you’re hoping to try this once everything calms down, Qantas will suspend all international service later this week and likely return to Singapore when service resumes again. The last westbound service will be March 26th and last eastbound service on March 27th.
CONCLUSION
Darwin once again finds itself in use as a wartime airport. Heavily used during the Pacific campaign of World War II, Darwin is now used to fight a more invisible enemy, allowing the repatriation of citizens as global air traffic continues to dwindle.
(H/T: One Mile at a Time)
Sheesh, they’re repatriating entire cities now? Gonna need something bigger than an A-380 for that (unless the “city” is quite small).
Pro Tip: You might want to proofread once in a while before you click that “Publish” button.
“allowing the repatriation of cities a global air traffic continues to dwindle.”
Oh I do. I just don’t do it very well.
Encouraging people to try out this flight is irresponsible. 1) Traveling now is selfish and can further spread the virus. 2) The seats are needed by essential travelers such as those trying to repatriate.
Can you reference where I encourage people to try out this flight?
“If you’re hoping to try this yourself” is the encouragement he referenced. You should have simply stated “this flight goes until …”
“If you’re hoping to try this yourself, Qantas will suspend all international service later this week.”
C’mon. No, you don’t explicitly encourage people to try it out, but by providing guidance for those who are “hoping to try this” rather than needing to, you sure as hell aren’t discouraging it. Not only that, but by writing that the service stops this week, you’re strongly implying that such people should rush and take it.
Honestly, Matt. I expect this kind of disingenuous nonsense from Kyle, not you
Nothing disingenuous in what Matthew wrote. It’s crystal clear that he’s saying it’s essentially impossible for anyone to try this service out for fun.
If you have no understanding of nuance and context, then the problem may be on your side, not in Matthew’s writing.
Crystal clear? Hardly,as reflected in the comments. Had he said “If you were hoping to”, then yes, it would be obvious that he was saying it’s essentially impossible. But he wrote “If you’re hoping to”, which has a different meaning.
And the correction doesn’t make a ton of sense either. Once everything “clams down”, they’ll go back to stopping in Singapore. There won’t be any reason to stop in Darwin
And the “disingenuous” referred to his comment, not the original statement
I agree with RBD, of course, but adjusted the sentence any way just so there is not doubt. It was never my intention to encourage people to fly for fun during this time.
Very few foreigners know much about Darwin. It was one of the few places in Australia attacked directly during the war. It will become better known in the future as it’s likely a much stronger US naval presence will be based there. DRW will grow strongly if that eventuates.
Considering most airlines have grounded their A380s, I wonder what their load factor is? Plus QFA 9/10 is still flying.
BTW Matthew, when I read this article, I never felt you were encouraging me to fly.