QANTAS Sydney to London Direct Flights?

QANTAS, Australia's national flag carrier airline is reported to be planning direct flights which go non-stop from Sydney to London.

The Australian Associated Press reported today that the Aussie airline is already holding negotiations to launch non-stop business-class flights between London and Sydney.

This follows after a record-breaking flight last week of a new Boeing 777-200 LR Worldliner aircraft. It's successful flight means it is now commercially feasible to have non-stop flights between Sydney and London for the first time.

The new giant 777-200 LR Jumbo Jet broke the world record for the longest flight by a commercial airliner, which proves it is capable of linking any two cities anywhere in the world.

It is still not possible to fly the distance with the full complement of 300 passengers on board. But removing 100 seats and adding three more fuel tanks would make direct flight between London and Sydney possible. And that's why Qantas is looking to the business-class market, with its higher fares, rather than economy class passengers.

Back in 1989, one Qantas jumbo flew directly from Sydney to London non-stop. But there were no passengers on board.

Competition is quite cut-throat on the London-Sydney route. This means that any airline that can offer faster non-stop flights will have a big jump on all its rivals.

Qantas would also save a great deal of money in the landing fees they normally have to pay out for their normal stopover points between Australia and the United Kingdom.