Direct flights between Europe and Australia! Qantas confirms non-stop London to Perth route!

Australia’s national carrier will start non-stop service between Perth and London in 2018. The 17-hour flight on the airline’s new 787 Dreamliner aircraft will be the first regular passenger service to directly link Europe and Australia!

Perth will become a hub for flights from around Australia, and even New Zealand, to go directly through to the UK. The direct service to London is expected to run 14 times per week. It will be introduced in March 2018, marking the first time passengers will be able to fly direct between Europe and Australia. Over time it is expected it will open up the potential for direct routes to and from other European cities.

When Qantas created the Kangaroo route to London in 1947, it took four days and nine stops. Now it will take just 17 hours from Perth non-stop, said Alan Joyce, Qantas chief executive officer.

The 14,498-kilometer (9,000-mile) link from Australia’s west coast to Europe would be the third-longest commercial passenger air route in the world.

Seats on the Perth-London flights will go on sale in April 2017. The airline will open a new flagship lounge at world’s second-busiest international airport, London’s Heathrow, early next year.