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LONDON (Bloomberg) – Qantas Airways' vision of the first direct flights between Sydney and London is getting closer to reality as Boeing Co. and Airbus SE finalize longer-range jet proposals needed to cover this journey of 17,060 km.
Qantas is also working to make the estimated journey to 20 hours closer to the British capital and cities such as New York and Paris, said general manager Alan Joyce during an interview. This involves choosing the right number of seats and a provision of the cabin that may include beds in the hold.
By connecting points on either side of the globe, new flights will be the last word in terms of distance. Only a direct London-Auckland service would be longer among the routes that the airlines have actively studied. A trip from Sydney or Melbourne to London would break the longest flight record held by Singapore Airlines from his hometown to New York for 1,609 km.
Planners will present their best final offerings on models capable of making the trip from southeastern Australia to northern Europe and the northeastern United States in the coming months, according to Joyce, who announced that the choice would be between the very long-haul A350-900ULR and -1000ULR of its European competitor.
"Boeing and Airbus are still working on the RFP," he said in London. "It's not just about adding some extra fuel tanks." The goal is to finalize everything by the end of the year and make a start-up decision. in 2022. "
Qantas is looking for a new contract with its pilots to cover the changes in work practices required to perform such long-duration flights, as well as to dialogue with the authorities on relevant regulatory changes, said the Executive Director. .
The destinations that will be accessible directly from the two largest cities in Australia, called Project Sunrise, include London, Paris and Frankfurt in Europe, and New York and Chicago in the United States, Joyce said. The CEO described these services as the "last frontier" of aviation, after which all major cities will be within reach of non-stop flights.
Qantas has already begun to open new routes with existing jets, adding the first direct flights London-Perth – which lies across from Melbourne and Sydney on the west coast of Australia – with a Boeing 787 Dreamliner bare. The carrier plans to use the model for Brisbane's services in Chicago, Dallas and Seattle.
The Perth service relies on a higher than usual number of business and economy clbad seats, for its viability, which may be necessary to support the routes contemplated by the Sunrise project. Joyce also said that part of the hold could be used for berths.
Flying to distant destinations will reduce the need for Qantas to serve gateway hubs such as Los Angeles, which partly explains why the carrier does not plan to take eight Airbus A380 superjumbos for which it has options, to add to 12 in his fleet. general manager said in London.
"When people are flying live, we do not need that," he said. "The network is changing quite significantly and is becoming much more point-to-point."
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