Qantas Airways plans to launch the world’s longest direct flight next year, a service of up to 22 hours nonstop between London and Sydney. The Sydney-based airline on Thursday unveiled the first of its specially-modified Airbus A350-1000 jets that will regularly make the 10,573-mile journey starting in October next year, reports the AP. The flights between cities on opposite sides of the world are expected to take between 19 and 22 hours. The current longest regularly scheduled direct flight is Singapore Airlines’ route between its city-state base and New York City. The distance of 9,537 miles is flown in under 19 hours. There’s a significant difference in passenger comfort between the airlines: Singapore’s Flight SQ24 doesn’t fly economy passengers.
While a standard Airbus A350-1000 can carry up to 480 passengers, Qantas ‘ customized version A350-1000ULR will carry only 238, with 140 of those in what is colloquially termed “cattle class” on flights between London and Sydney. The farthest an economy passenger can currently fly on a direct flight in the world is with Qantas between London and Perth on Australia’s west coast. That’s a distance of 9,009 miles flown in between 16 and 18 hours. Sydney is on Australia’s east coast.
Sharon Petersen, chief executive officer of AirlineRatings, an Australia-based website that ranks airlines around the world on their products and safety, said Qantas economy seats between London and Sydney would have more leg room than most long haul airlines. Economy passengers would also have access to a so-called Wellbeing Zone between economy and premium economy cabins where they can stretch their limbs and help themselves to drinks and snacks. Qantas has said passengers will pay more for direct flights when tickets go on sale in February than they do for flights that make a stop in Singapore, but will save up to four hours of travel time.
Petersen said flying business class direct was a great option for passengers who could potentially sleep for eight hours without the interruption of disembarking at Singapore. But she would prefer to break up the journey rather than fly 22 hours in economy. “The reason for that is 22 hours is really daunting. If you get sat next to someone who’s smelly, is perhaps really unwell and coughing, perhaps there’s a baby sitting next to you that’s having an uncomfortable flight or an oversized passenger who really needs two seats,” Petersen said. She regards two shorter flights as a safer option in economy. “If you’ve got it wrong on one flight, you might be okay on the next. You get a break,” she said.
