Qantas CEO Alan Joyce announced that an undisclosed aircraft has “met the challenge” and Qantas will be prepared to fly nonstop between Sydney and London and other ultra-longhaul destinations by the end of the year.
Joyce’s prediction came at the Amazon Innovation Conference in Sydney. Speaking about the next frontier of longhaul travel, Joyce stated that Qantas will be prepared to begin routes like Sydney to London, Melbourne to London, and Sydney to New York by the end of the year. Just one small problem: it still needs aircraft to handle the mission.
I wrote notes to the CEO of Airbus, the CEO of Boeing and said ‘we want you to help develop an aircraft … can you do it by 2022?
The reaction of businesses was huge — Airbus said it was a bit like the space race, the race to the moon; that’s how they’re treating it in their organization…
We now believe there’s an aircraft capable of doing that.
Which aircraft might that be? A 777X? An A350? Joyce won’t say. But he does say that Qantas will have all the elements in place by year’s end to begin these ambitious new longhaul routes.
Those include:
- New flight planning software (called Constellation) that will save on fuel by carefully optimizing flight paths
- New pilot contracts to address the ultra-longhaul flights
- Cabin configurations to ensure that passengers remain “healthy” onboard these longhaul flights
As for the aircraft, Qantas hopes to make a decision by year’s end and begin flying ahead of the 2022 deadline.
CONCLUSION
The commencement of nonstop service between Sydney and London (a 10,500-mile, 21-hour flight) would make it the longest flight in the world, displacing Singapore Airlines’ nonstop flight from Singapore to Newark.
Would you be willing to hop on a 21-hour flight if you were not flying in business or first class?
> Read More: Qantas Issues Challenge For Nonstop Sydney – London Flight
> Read More: “Cargo Class” Has Great Potential
image: Qantas
No, certainly not. It would be a nightmare from hell. A lie flat business seat would be the minimum to consider this route. I was a great fan of the SQ all business service Singapore to Newark on the A340; it made a huge difference to that sector by avoiding LAX and minimising jet lag. No doubt the proposed Qantas service would do the same but only in premium seats: it would take me days to recover from doing it in economy ( and so if I want/need to do it ‘on the cheap’, I’d prefer to break the journey with a stop enroute)
Same, I love layovers since they allow me the time to stretch my legs and get some food(assuming airplane food was bad). I may even potentially be able to explore the layover city as well! I’ve always scheduled layovers of at least 3 hours on long haul journeys now. A nice shower beats a savings of a few or so hours in my book
21 hours would be punishing enough with a lie-flat business class seat. Economy would not be an option for me, would rather take a layover.
This will be immensely popular I’m sure! It’s a considerable tourist attraction by itself.
Honestly, I don’t think I’d want to do a 21 hour flight even in J or F. That just seems to long to be enjoyable, even for this avgeek.
Will be a miserable experience. I imagine those flights will be priced at a premium but for me to fly one would have to be a major discount. Perhaps not even then.
Indeed, this will be a marathon tourist attraction flight itself!
LHR-SYD is my six times a year commute.
I have no intention of trying this non-stop at any time in the future, I value getting off, having a shower, walking around and maybe having a night stop. I always travel in F or C and no matter how good QF claim to make it I won’t be trying it.
When I use MH, CX, SQ, QR, EY or TG I rarely even take the shortest connection as I really do enjoy the stop.
My prediction is that the aircraft will be a further stretch of the A350-900 ULR or an adaptation of the A350-1000. The A359 has almost the range, the A351 could be adapted if QF want it badly enough.
Why would they buy the 787 if they can use this plane? If they go with the A350, then it would be more confusing.
Wouldn’t dream of it; there are useful and interesting layovers on the route that add value to the trip, and besides, the non-stop flight should also have a premium price.
Ever since the Concorde failed the world has been waiting for supersonic passenger flights, and this idea will prove to be a huge waste of resources when Mach2 and soon after Mach3 flights become available to the public at competitive fares.
Qantas has had big failures before, but why make it a habit?