Qantas will launch direct Perth-Rome flights from June 2022, with 3x weekly flights during the European summer when demand for leisure travel to Italy is at its peak.
Running from 22 June until 6 October 2022, the seasonal flights will be operated by the airline’s Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners. The flights will run as a Sydney-Perth-Rome service, and it is expected that seats will also be made available for individual sale on the Sydney-Perth leg which will depart from the international terminal in Sydney.
Qantas’ schedule to Rome
Taking over the flight numbers previously used by Qantas’ Sydney-Frankfurt flights, QF5 and QF6 will operate between Sydney and Rome with the following schedule from 22 June 2022:
Sydney-Perth-Rome
- QF5 Sydney 17:55 – Perth 20:50 – Mondays, Wednesdays & Saturdays
- QF5 Perth 22:20 – Rome 08:45 (+1 day) – Mondays, Wednesdays & Saturdays
Rome-Perth-Sydney
- QF6 Rome 10:50 – Perth 08:35 (+1 days) – Tuesdays, Thursdays & Sundays
- QF6 Perth 10:05 – Sydney 16:05 – Wednesdays, Fridays & Mondays
The flight time from Perth to Rome will be 16 hours and 25 minutes. In the other direction, flights from Italy’s capital to the Western Australian capital will take 15 hours and 45 minutes.
Connecting flights will be available from other cities across Australia via Perth. Qantas will also offer onward connections from Rome to 15 other destinations in Italy and 16 cities in continental Europe including Athens, Barcelona, Madrid and Paris, operated by “Qantas’ network of partners”. The airline hasn’t yet specified which partner airlines will operate these flights, but ITA Airways is likely to be one of them as it’s currently the only large airline with a hub in Rome.
Qantas customers can also book “open jaw” return tickets to Europe, flying into London on one of Qantas’ double-daily flights and returning to Australia from Rome. This could also be a clever way to avoid paying the UK’s expensive Air Passenger Duty which applies to flights departing from the UK.
Pricing & Classic Reward availability
The Perth-Rome flights are priced from $1,745 return in Economy, $4,152 return in Premium Economy or $8,465 return in Business. From Sydney to Rome, you could expect to pay $1,915 in Economy, $4,273 in Premium Economy or $9,535 in Business, round-trip.
Qantas has designated the inaugural Sydney-Rome and Rome-Sydney flights as “points planes” until 21 December 2021, meaning every seat is available to book using Qantas Frequent Flyer points. The Business and Premium Economy seats on the inaugural flight to Rome have already sold out, but other seats may still be available.
Why Rome?
Qantas will likely have little trouble filling planes to Italy during the European summer holidays in June, July and August when lots of Australians are heading to Europe for holidays or to visit friends and family. Italy is traditionally a very popular destination over the July school holidays, and the Rome-Perth flights will likely be completely full during the second half of July. But there may not be enough business traffic to make this route work on a year-round basis.
“Italy is the largest market for us in continental Europe for people visiting family and friends from Australia and we think customers will love flying direct to one of the world’s great cities to spend time with loved ones or enjoy Italy,” Qantas CEO Alan Joyce said.
Joyce also believes there is renewed demand for non-stop long-haul flights to key overseas destinations.
“We’ve seen amazing demand on our direct service from Perth to London and on our new services to Delhi from Melbourne and Sydney. These are exciting destinations and there’s strong evidence the pandemic is making non-stop flights between Australia and the rest of world even more desirable as we learn to live with the virus and its variants,” Mr Joyce said.
Qantas has previously explored the possibility of operating direct Perth-Paris and Perth-Frankfurt flights. Both of these cities could be served non-stop from Sydney or Melbourne, alongside London and New York, when Project Sunrise eventually begins.
The announcement of new Qantas flights from Perth to Rome comes just days after WA premier Mark McGowan confirmed his state will reopen to interstate and international travel on 5 February 2022. Travellers to WA will no longer need to quarantine on arrival from this date, but will need to be vaccinated and get negative COVID-19 tests.
In another positive sign that Qantas and WA authorities are now working together again, the Perth-Rome flights will be supported by Tourism Western Australia. Qantas says it will promote Perth as an “ideal stopover for Australians travelling to Europe from the east coast”.
Given this announcement, it is likely Qantas’ Melbourne-London flights will also be reinstated next year via Perth instead of Darwin, as they are currently (but temporarily) operating. Qantas’ Melbourne-Perth-London flights are currently scheduled to return from 27 March 2022.
Qantas previously flew to Rome between 1948 and 2003. The airline last flew to Italy on 8 September 2003. Ironically, Qantas at the time blamed a drop in demand caused by SARS for the withdrawal of these services.
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