Qantas poised to announce SYD-LHR non-stop ?

Back to Forum
Viewing 15 posts - 16 through 30 (of 36 total)

  • LuganoPirate
    Participant

    Great clip Paulkaz, thanks for sharing. Those were the days. A navigator in the cockpit, trolley service in the cabin and comfortable, roomy seats in Economy. Sighhhh.


    penfold69
    Participant

    I think Delta’s flight is more like 16hrs Westbound. 18hrs would make it the longest flight I think. Qatar currently operate the longest flight from DOH/AKL at 17hr 40mins. Has anyone travelled on this flight and has any thoughts on what an extra few hours would be like? I can only imagine that sitting in Y would be like slowly torturing yourself.


    K1ngston
    Participant

    penfold69 I flew SIN-JFK about 4 years ago on the all J class SQ flight (which was subsequently removed from schedules) this is the longest flight almost 18 hours and even in J it was far too long and I would probably not want to do it again, and to your point in Y would be almost impossible I would think..

    I hear that SQ are re introducing the flight in 2018 when they receive their A350-1000s making it the longest sector again


    TominScotland
    Participant

    Would be a great opportunity for QF and BA to kiss and make up and operate this as a joint venture. Indeed, they should think of this for PER. QF and EK probably won’t last so this could be the way to go


    paulkaz
    Participant

    TominScotland I dont think there is an role for BA in QF ‘s future .QF cant fill the MEL A380 via DXB to LHR.Hence the new 787-9 PER LHR flight originating in MEL.QF s A380 s sit at LHR for a long costly time. QF must dream of 5th freedom rights on to JFK to make a true round the world flight economic.
    In comparison just from SYD EK has 3 A380 flights EY 1 A380 (soon 2)and a 777w,and QR 1 A380 and soon a A350 ( including CBR) all of which provide 1 stop to a huge range of european cities.
    BA can only offer back tracking through LHR ( except Ireland) after a complicated transfer as QF does not use T5. Worse the european leg is on BA J being an economy seat with a better meal rather than ME3 premium long haul.


    MarkivJ
    Participant

    Totally OT but cathay Pacific flies to a number of European destinations. Granted, it’s not as extensive as the Emirates network. But I’ve always wondered why Qantas did not enter into an alliance with their oneworld partner and instead chose emirates.


    Flightlevel
    Participant

    QF already have A380s to fly LHR-PER, they would carry less pax ‘though with added comfort/pitch should manage 500, and not ‘flying the tube’ for 18hrs.
    What they lose from yield in 1st class,they can regain in comfortable seats in economy.


    AMcWhirter
    Participant

    K1ngston – Re: SIN-NYC A340-500 non-stop

    In fact, having followed this story ever since it started, I can confirm the flight time would vary depending on the season of year, wind direction and the routing.

    On any given day the flight would take less than 18 hours or almost 19 hours.

    Originally in 2004 SIA configured the A340-500s with J and what it termed “executive economy.”

    It was only later (after TG* found its non-stop BKK-NYC service uneconomical to operate and therefore axed it) that SIA brought in the all-J layout in a last ditch attempt to make the route work.

    https://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/singapore-airlines-considers-all-business-for-airbus-a340-500s-215947/

    * I wonder how many people today can remember that TG also operated non-stop between BKK and LAX/NYC with A340-500s ?


    paulkaz
    Participant

    MarkivJ QF is very close to AA in one world but thats about it.There is no affinity with JL on Japan routes and there has always been outright hostility to CX for decades. I’m not sure why but in the 90s QF seriously considered a SQ NZ tie up rather than CX. Our foreign ownership laws scuttled it.
    https://www.ausbt.com.au/the-qantas-singapore-airlines-alliance-that-almost-happened


    IanFromHKG
    Participant

    Some years ago due to bad weather over Hong Kong, my inbound flight on CX from JFK was delayed, circling and waiting for the weather to clear. It didn’t, and ultimately we were diverted to Manila. Time in the air was, if I recall correctly, about 18½ hours. Unfortunately it took them a while to try (and ultimately fail) to locate a replacement crew to take us straight back to HK so we were on the airframe for a little over 20 hours. It was grim, but then I had had a rather arduous trip and simply wasn’t in the right frame of mind to be on an aircraft that long! Thank goodness I wasn’t down the back…

    Would I do it again? Well, I don’t know. I think it would depend on timing and where the layover was and what the layover facilities were like. The big drawback of a stop, of course, is the disruption – to your sleep (and your flexibility to schedule it when you want it) and the sheer hassle of having to pack everything up, get off the aeroplane, hang around for however long it is, queue up to get back on, and so forth. I recall the old CX flights to NY which went via YVR, where we were turfed off and held in a waiting pen for a couple of hours with nothing but hard seating and a couple of urns of tea and coffee for company (well, apart from the 3 or 4 hundred other people, of course!). I switched to non-stop flights wherever I could!

    Now that my travel is all self-funded, I have been using indirect routes a lot more, notably on Malaysian (as mentioned on here before), so clearly cost factors in here as well. QF are quite open about expecting a premium fare for non-stop. That alone would probably be enough to swing the decision for me. If someone else were paying and the timing worked out, I might do it.


    EU_Flyer
    Participant

    Qantas has just announced that it will be pulling out of Dubai in early 2018 and resuming Sydney to London flights via Singapore. It will still codeshare with EK out of Australia to Europe, effectively forcing its customers not travelling to London to use EK for the entire flight ex AUS/EUR. It’s an interesting development and will be very popular in Australia, mainly Sydney, for those who still yearned for Changi 5 years after the change of hub to Dubai. It will also return the QF A380 to Singapore.


    K1ngston
    Participant

    Wow Alex, thats an interesting development indeed, having suffered the trip via Dubai a year or so ago. Also selfishly gives more seats and therefore more choice and I hope better prices when having to travel back to the motherland!


    mkcol74
    Participant

    And here’s the story in the SMH


    AMcWhirter
    Participant

    Latest news today.

    Qantas bins proposed amenities for Sydney-London non-stops

    1 user thanked author for this post.

    rferguson
    Participant

    Qantas will be operating ‘test flights’ from NYC – Sydney and London – Sydney in October. The plan is to measure ‘comfort factors’ of the passengers and crew onboard. There will be scientists and medical experts onboard measuring sleep patterns, melatonin levels, hydration, lighting etc etc and all will be wearing technology to measure.

    These test flights are not available for Joe Public to travel on. The forty ‘passengers’ will in fact be Qantas employees volunteering to play passenger.

    CEO Alan Joyce has told Qantas employees that the results will help come to a decision by the end of this year whether QF will be going forward with the launch of non stop SYD-LON/NYC flights part of ‘project sunrise’.

    The only issue I have is how can factors such as comfort and ability to sleep be really measured when there are only 40 people onboard? Surely to get a realistic idea you’d want a full economy cabin shoulder to shoulder to measure such factors? I appreciate a 787 cannot operate such sector lengths with a full load (the actual flights if launched will be on 77X/350ULH aircraft) however it could possibly be simulated on the ground (or with a stop enroute).

    I’ve tried to find a link online (this was announced to QF staff yesterday) and so far have had no luck but I imagine it will be in the OZ media shortly.

Viewing 15 posts - 16 through 30 (of 36 total)
You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
Business Traveller March 2024 edition
Business Traveller March 2024 edition
Be up-to-date
Magazine Subscription
To see our latest subscription offers for Business Traveller editions worldwide, click on the Subscribe & Save link below
Polls