Qantas reroutes its direct London to Perth flight – and adds a refuelling stop

Since 2018, Qantas has operated the world’s only commercial non-stop flight from Australia to the UK between London and Perth.

Perth’s westerly location and a premium aircraft configuration meant that the Boeing 787-9 used could just about stretch to London, which at 9,010 miles is the fourth longest flight in the world.

The 17-hour trip proved popular, and Qantas has since launched similar flights to Paris and Rome.

(The flights are also a proof-of-concept for the airline’s upcoming ‘Project Sunrise’ strategy. This will see it launch non-stop flights from East Coast Australian cities to Europe using modified Airbus A350s with extra fuel tanks to make the 22-hour journey. These planes will feature brand new First, business, premium and economy cabins.)

Unfortunately, geopolitical issues mean that Qantas is having to change tack. Escalating tension between Israel and Iran means that Qantas is rerouting its flights around (rather than over) the region as a safety precaution.

This pushes the aircraft beyond its range threshold and will require Qantas to insert a refuelling stop in Singapore on the westbound flight from Perth to London. So far, flights up to 20th August have been updated, although this is likely to continue for longer.

Flights in the opposite direction – from London to Perth – will remain non-stop as the tail winds mean less fuel is burnt covering the same distance.

The new Westbound routing adds over four hours to the journey time and defeats the object of this non-stop service, particularly as many passengers will be connecting from Melbourne or Sydney. At that point you may as well jump on one of the airline’s existing A380 services that already connect via Singapore.

Passengers will at least be allowed to get off the aircraft in Singapore and use the very good Qantas lounges whilst the plane is refuelled.