Qantas will axe its Melbourne-Dubai-London Airbus A380 flights next year and re-route passengers through Perth on its new non-stop Boeing 787 services.
The move from March 24 will mean a quicker journey to London Heathrow for Melburnians, shaving more than an hour off the travel time. This is mainly due to a quicker transit through Perth but also to the fact and the fact the 787 flies slightly faster than the A380.
Read: Boeing 787 non-stop flights from Perth on sale
The A380 that currently operates the Melbourne route will be redeployed to Asia to service periods of high demand from Melbourne and Sydney to destinations such as Singapore and Hong Kong.
Qantas passengers still wanting to travel via Dubai will be able to take one of three daily flights operated by partner Emirates.
Emirates will provide an all-A380 service to Melbourne, increasing capacity by 945 seats a week (10 per cent), when it upgrades its EK408 and EK409 services from a Boeing 777-300ER to an A380 from March 24. The airline’s popular A380s operate a three-class cabin configuration with 14 first class suites, 76 lie-flat seats in business class and 399 seats in economy.
Flights will leave Melbourne at 3:20pm, arriving in Perth at 5:20pm and departing at 6:50pm to arrive in London at 5:10am. On the way back, the service leaves London at 1:30pm to arrive in Melbourne at 10:10pm.
It will also see Melbourne become a hub for the airline’s first four Dreamliners, with the first two dedicated to Melbourne-Los Angeles from December 2017 and the next two dedicated to Melbourne-Perth-London.
Passengers travelling to London will remain airside in upgraded international transit facilities, including a new lounge, in Qantas’s existing Perth domestic terminals, T3/4. The airline’s international flights to Singapore and Auckland will also move to T3/4.
The airline has also promised a seamless transition for people joining the London flight from other parts of Australia, with more details to be released next month.
“People joining the flight to London from other parts of Australia (including regional Western Australia and Adelaide) will find it a smooth transition with international and domestic flights arriving and departing from the same terminal, complete with dedicated customs and immigration,’’ it said.
The 14,498km Perth-London flight will take about 17 hours, depending on winds, and will be the longest Dreamliner flight in the world.
Perth passengers will also get a convenient connection through to the Melbourne-Los Angeles flight, which will operate six days a week.
The Qantas 236-seat 787 features the airline’s acclaimed business suite offering a fully-flat bed, plenty of work and storage space and 1-2-1 layout.
There are also new economy and premium economy seats. Economy passengers get an extra inch of seat pitch compared to the airline’s A380 as well as a new personal device holder, USB ports and more storage areas.
The next generation premium economy seat is in a 2-32 configuration, is wider, packed with features and has a greater recline.
Read: Qantas launches stunning premium economy seat.
