Do you happen to be a ULR (Ultra Long Range) flight lover? Well what Qantas has been up to is right up your alley. Just days back the australian national carrier completed in a test flight the longest direct flight in the world.
The 19 hour 16 minute Sydney to New York flight smashed all previous records. It was only a test flight, so don’t prepare your suitcase and credit card just yet. Only a small group of reporters and and Qantas staff were the passengers of this flight.
The aircraft for the test was a Boeing Dreamliner 787-9 which covered in 19 hours 16 minutes the 10,200 Miles (or approx 16,000 km) that separated the Sydney from the “Big Apple”.
This being a test flight one of its main goals was data collection. Not only data regarding the aircraft’s performances, but also the experience for the passengers on such a long journey. Throughout the flight the passenger, who were all accomodated in the business class cabin, were monitored and engaged in reaction time test.
Already Another Test Flight On The Radar
But this is already the past, because yet another Qantas test flight will break this record. The aussie airline is already set to test an even longer flight next month, connecting Sydney and London.
Another 787 Dreamliner will cover the 10,500 miles separating the two cities, also the test that will take place on board the aircraft will be very similar to those on the Sydney New York flight.
When will they become active routes?
You’ll still have to wait a bit before being able to embark on these extreme ULR (Ultra Long Range) flights. All these flights are part of “Project Sunrise” that plans to connect all major Australian cities to cities in Europe and the United States without stop overs. The initial plan was for these flights to become part of Qantas’ schedule by 2022. It seems though that this term might slip over to 2023.
What is the main reason behind project sunrise?
Australia’s geographical position from an airline strategical standpoint until now has penalised Qantas. The airline has always had to perform technical stopovers in either south east asia or the middle east on the routes that connect the island country to europe.
This is costly as extra airport and government charges apply on these stopovers. This made the europe bound routes less profitable for the airline which in turn made the airline less competitive with the ticket pricing which meant suffering the competition of the asian and middle easter airlines.
The airline with the London to Perth direct flight, is now able to reduce stop overs in third countries when connecting the UK to Australia. This translates to the ability to reduce costs. Qantas by doing this can use Perth as its stopover, which is way cheaper than a foreign airport.
With direct flights from Australia to Europe’s main cities the airline is trying to re-gain its lost market share over competitors.
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