Qantas will now restore its direct flights from Perth to London from 23 May 2022 – around four weeks earlier than previously planned.

The announcement comes just days after Qantas had to offload large numbers of bags and passengers from its Darwin-London flights due to emergency runway works at Darwin International Airport. With a shortened runway available, Qantas’ Darwin-London flights last week had to be weight-restricted so that the aircraft could safely get off the ground with a full load of fuel.

Qantas has been operating its Melbourne-London and Sydney-London flights via Darwin ever since it resumed international flights on 1 November 2021. Qantas normally runs these flights via Perth and Singapore, respectively. But the Darwin stopover was created out of necessity due to Western Australia remaining closed to the world and transit testing requirements making a Singapore stopover unattractive at the time.

Qantas originally planned to resume flying from Melbourne to London via Perth, instead of Darwin, at the end of March 2022. But Qantas pushed back the resumption of Perth-London flights by a few months after WA Premier Mark McGowan abandoned his planned 5 February reopening date. (WA’s border eventually reopened on 3 March 2022.)

Perth-London is more commercially attractive (when WA is open)

Until yesterday, Qantas had planned to resume Perth-London flights on 19 June. But with WA now open and the Darwin-London route presenting operational challenges, e.g. due to Russian airspace being closed, it makes sense to bring back the Perth-London route sooner.

Pre-COVID, the majority of passengers on Qantas’ Perth-London flights were originating in Perth. This flight has significantly more “O&D” (origin & destination) demand than Darwin-London, making it more commercially attractive for Qantas.

Qantas first began non-stop Perth-London flights in March 2018.

For passengers travelling through from Melbourne to London, Qantas’ Perth international transit lounge is significantly better than the temporary Darwin transit lounge. The total travel time from Melbourne to London via Perth is also 45 minutes shorter than via Darwin. In the other direction, the time saving is 50 minutes.

Sydney-London flights switch to Singapore stopover in June

Qantas is still planning to continue its Sydney-Darwin-London flights until 18 June 2022. However, Qantas is not currently selling any seats on the Darwin-London legs of QF1 or QF2.

From 19 June, Qantas will switch its QF1/2 Sydney-London route back to a Singapore stopover. It will also upgrade that route from a Boeing 787-9 to an Airbus A380 with around double the number of seats and First Class service available.

Join the discussion on the Australian Frequent Flyer forum: QF9/10 to return to PER earlier – from 23rd May

Matt Graham

The editor of Australian Frequent Flyer, Matt's passion for travel has taken him to over 90 countries… with the help of frequent flyer points, of course!
Matt's favourite destinations (so far) are Germany, Brazil & Kazakhstan. His interests include aviation, economics & foreign languages, and he has a soft spot for good food and red wine.

You can connect with Matt by posting on the Australian Frequent Flyer community forum and tagging @AFF Editor.