The Qantas airline landed in London on Sunday morning after the first direct flight from Australia to England. The journey of 14,498 kilometres took over 17 hours.
The so-called ‘’kangaroo route’’ between Australia and England was a bit shorter than expected on Sunday morning when the Qantas plane from Perth landed wheels on the runway at Heathrow, London.
The route from Perth to London is the first regular scheduled flight between Australia and Europe. In 1947, Qantas launched its first route from Sydney to London. Then the trip took four days, and there were nine stops on the way.
But it’s not the first time a plane has traveled from Australia to Europe in a single stretch. In 2015, Qantas flew a group of Australians from Perth to Istanbul for the 100-year marking of the Battle of Gallipoli during World War I, where soldiers from Australia and New Zealand participated.
Under the guidance of pilot, Lisa Norman, the flight from Perth to London can also be recorded as the longest with a Boeing Dreamliner aircraft. The longest direct flight is Air India’s route between New Delhi and San Francisco,at 15,140 kilometres.
Other flights that stand out are Qatar Airways’ route from Doha to Auckland in New Zealand (14,535 kilometres), and Emirates’ route from Dubai to Auckland (14,200 kilometres).
Qantas plans direct flights between Sydney and London in 2022. Airline boss, Alan Joyce, has raised the challenge for both Boeing and Airbus to produce aircraft capable of flying from Sydney to London and New York.
‘’We are coming closer. During this year we will know if both aircraft can do it’’, he said.
© NTB Scanpix / #Norway Today
