Tickets for Qantas’ non-stop Perth-London flights are now on sale.
Qantas will become the only airline to offer non-stop flights from Australia to Europe when it begins flying from Perth to London on 24 March next year. Qantas is hoping that its customers will pay a premium for the convenience of a direct flight.
The flights will operate on a Melbourne-Perth-London rotation using new Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner aircraft. QF9 will depart Melbourne at 3.20pm for Perth. The flight will then depart Perth after a 90-minute layover at 6.50pm, for a 5.10am arrival in London-Heathrow the next morning. On the return trip, QF10 will depart London at 1.30pm and arrive in Perth at 1.15pm the next day. QF10 will finally reach Melbourne at 8.10pm.
This post sums up the thoughts of many members on the timings…
5:10am arrival? Arrive exhausted on holiday well before breakfast time and need to try and stay awake all day. Not fun.
The return leg timing for the 787 service is much more reasonable and something I might consider.
It will be possible to book a seat between Melbourne and Perth. This could appeal to some as these flights will depart from the international terminals.
Some members have welcomed the new flights, which will remove the need for a stopover in Asia or the Middle East en-route to Europe. But not everyone is willing to pay the premium price Qantas is asking. A return Economy ticket from Perth to London is currently selling for $2,267. Meanwhile, Premium Economy seats are selling for around $4,250 and Business class for $9,725. Fares may be lower during sale periods.
Qf have to be kidding with that pricing!!….you won’t find me flying J Syd-Per-Lhr even on work’s dime!!!
The London-Perth flight is scheduled at 15 hours and 45 minutes. But in the other direction, the flight from Perth to London will take a whopping 18 hours and 20 minutes! While the length of the flight should not be a great concern for Business class passengers, Qantas is using a high-density 3-3-3 configuration in Economy class. This means that seats will have a width of just 17 inches – the same as the width of a Boeing 737 seat. Our members do not enjoy the prospect of sitting in one of those Economy seats for up to 18 hours.
I know prices will quickly fall, but still it’s pretty amusing QF is trying to charge a premium for these flights in Y. If anything, there’s going to need to be a deep discount on these flights to convince Y pax to be stuck in a cramped tube for 17+ hours without a break, especially when arriving at 5am and therefore unable to check in to their hotel to freshen up afterwards.
Ahead of the new flights, Qantas will be building a new transit lounge in Perth. Qantas will also open a new lounge at London-Heathrow. Business class passengers will continue to have access to the American Airlines arrivals lounge after landing in London.
A number of other routes are implicated by the announcement of the new flights. From 24 March 2018, Qantas will cease A380 flights from Melbourne to London via Dubai. On the same date, Emirates will upgrade the third of its 3x daily Melbourne-Dubai flights from a Boeing 777 to an A380. Qantas’ second daily Melbourne-Los Angeles flight, QF95, will also be re-timed to depart Melbourne at 9.40pm.
Qantas will have two “spare” A380s once Melbourne-Dubai-London flights are suspended. While Qantas will likely re-deploy these aircraft on flights to Hong Kong and Singapore, there is some speculation that Qantas will take the opportunity to refurbish its A380 fleet next year.
Would you fly on Qantas’ new Perth-London flight? Join the discussion HERE.
