Qantas puts the new ‘kangaroo’ route on sale

Australians can now book non-stop flights from Australia to Europe for the first time, with tickets for Qantas’ Perth-London (Heathrow) route going on sale.

Daily flights on the history-making route begin on 24 March 2018 and form part of a new Melbourne-Perth-London return service. The services will be operated by Qantas’ new Boeing 787-Dreamliner – an aircraft designed specifically for comfort on long-heul sectors. Customers from other Australian cities will be able to connect to London via Perth, while inbound passengers will be able to transfer from the West Australian capital to onward destinations across the country. There’s also expected to be a surge in stopovers within Western Australia itself. The new QF9/10 will replace Qantas’ existing Melbourne-Dubai-London services – marking the next evolution of the Kangaroo Route, seven decades after the national carrier first flew Australians all the way to London. Qantas Group CEO Alan Joyce said there had been global interest in the Perth-London flights since they were announced in December 2016. “We’ve said the Qantas Dreamliner is a game changer, and that’s becoming real today.”

“This route makes Western Australia a new tourism gateway for Australia. We know from our research that there’s a lot of appetite to explore the West, not just from British and European visitors but also from Aussies on their way to London. A lot of business travellers, particularly in the resources sector, will stop off in Perth on their way to the UK”, he added. The travel experience for customers connecting in Perth will be seamless, with Qantas building a new international transit lounge at Perth Airport. 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. More details on the transit experience at Perth will be announced next month.

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