Qantas plans London non-stop from Australia, but will not include bunk beds

The director of Qantas, Alan Joyce, confirmed that the airline would decide by the end of this year to buy new ultra-haul aircraft that could link Melbourne and Sydney to London and New York non-stop. gyms, children's play areas and bunk beds.

Joyce said Monday that he was expecting Boeing and Airbus to submit a "best final offer" by August for a possible order of multi – billion – dollar planes completing the deal. Project Sunrise "of Qantas.

Airbus is combining its A350 with the new Boeing 777X to make journeys lasting up to 21 hours, which could start at the end of 2022 and become the longest flights in the world.

"We have met these past two days with both the Boeing and Airbus senior executives … and we had a very good discussion with them both," Joyce said on the sidelines of the General Assembly. annual meeting of the International Air Transport Association in Seoul.

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"Both are very eager to win this."

However, Joyce said some of the project's initial ambitions had been reduced, notably that the flights would not work with a full passenger cabin, in order to remove the weight needed for the planes to fly up to now.

There will be four classes of newly designed cabs – economical, premium, commercial and first – unlike the Qantas Boeing Dreamliners that serve Perth-London non-stop and have no first class.

Qantas had already explored the use of space in the jet landing gear train to build children's play areas, a bar and offices, and even install bunk beds for them. economical passengers.

Joyce explained that Qantas had discovered that "putting documents in the baggage compartment … does not work," explained Joyce.

However, the design of the cabins to be discovered includes a smaller exercise area to allow passengers in economy class to stretch their legs during Marathon flights.

"We are in the air looking at an area we call the" fourth zone ", where people can stretch, exercise and hydrate. ", did he declare.

"And that will be part of the product we use to launch."

In addition to the Airbus and Boeing awards, Qantas' decision is contingent on negotiating a new pilot salary agreement and changing flight safety rules to allow them to travel longer areas. .

With several other important projects for Qantas, including the replacement of its aging national fleet, Joyce said the Sunrise project would be completed by the end of the year "in one way or another. ;another".

And stated that he was not afraid to speak out against the project despite the hype and the global media attention that he had attracted.

"It's the shareholders' money and it's going to cost billions of dollars," he said.

"You have to know when to refuse, if the business case does not work … we will be ruthless and we will kill the project."

With respect to wage negotiations, Joyce said the pilots knew that Sunrise flights would create promotional opportunities and develop the airline.

The easiest thing Qantas could do was give the shareholders the money it would spend on Sunrise in the form of redemptions, he said. The airline has returned more than 3 billion Australian dollars to investors in the form of dividends and redemptions since 2015.

The aircraft manufacturer's final offerings expected for the month of August will include price-to-order and guarantees on aircraft performance, maintenance costs and reliability.

Joyce said he would seek incentives from airports and state governments to help them decide on the possible route with which Sunrise would be launched, Sydney and Melbourne being Australia's main competitors, while London and New York are the main international destinations.

Qantas was still interested in launching a Perth-Paris service but did not commit to buying the new Dreamliners required as long as it was still in conflict with Perth Airport about service charges.

Paris would be another potential destination on the Australian East Coast if she bought A350s or 777s, as well as Frankfurt and Chicago, Joyce said.