Airbus and Boeing now have aircraft that could fly 20-hour non-stop flights from Sydney to London

by Dramelin 1:00 AM 0 comments

Both Airbus and Boeing now offer aircraft that appear capable of flying non-stop commercial flights from Sydney to London - the "Holy Grail" for Australian carrier Qantas Airways Ltd.
As long as oil prices don`t go much higher than around $70 per barrel, the 20-hour flight can be financially viable, and could be on schedules within five years, aviation experts say.
Airbus has increased the range of its A350-900ULR to 9,700 nautical miles (17,960 kms) from the 8,700 nautical miles announced when it sold the plane to Singapore Airlines in 2015 for delivery next year, a spokesman told Reuters.
Including headwinds, the Sydney-London flight is equivalent to 9,600 nautical miles.
"These aircraft, we think, are potentially real goers on these routes," Qantas CEO Alan Joyce told Reuters of the A350-900ULR and the bigger but less advanced Boeing 777-8.
"You know from what they have done on other aircraft that Sydney-London and Melbourne-London has real possibility.
" For Qantas, a non-stop Sydney-London route that cuts three hours off the flight time would allow it to charge a premium and differentiate its product from the around two dozen other airlines plying the so-called Kangaroo route with stop-offs in Singapore, Dubai and Hong Kong.
The route accounts for only 13 percent of Qantas` international capacity, but carries the prestige QF1 flight number and is important to its global brand.
Qantas could charge around a 20 percent price premium for a non-stop Sydney-London flight as it would attract business and premium leisure travellers wanting to complete the trip as fast as possible, said Rico Merkert, a professor specialising in transport at the University of Sydney`s business school.
"It`s something that can be presented as a unique selling point for Qantas," he said.