Qantas Airways plans to launch the world’s longest direct flight next year, a service of up to 22 hours nonstop between London and Sydney.
Flight Details
The Sydney-based airline on Thursday unveiled the first of its specially-modified Airbus A350-1000 jets that will regularly make the 17,015-kilometer journey from October next year.
The flights between cities on opposite sides of the world are expected to take between 19 and 22 hours. A significant difference in passenger comfort between the airlines is that Singapore’s Flight SQ24 doesn’t fly economy passengers.
While a standard Airbus A350-1000 can carry up to 480 passengers, Qantas’ customized version A350-1000ULR will carry only 238, with 140 of those in economy class on flights between London and Sydney.
Passenger Experience
Economy passengers would also have access to a so-called Wellbeing Zone between economy and premium economy cabins where they could stretch their limbs and help themselves to drinks and snacks.
Qantas has said passengers will pay more for direct flights when tickets go on sale in February than they do for flights that make a stop in Singapore. Qantas says the direct flights will save up to four hours of travel time.
Original reporting: KTBS 3 (Shreveport) — read the source article.
