Qantas passengers travelling between Sydney and Santiago will get to fly on the airline’s Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner starting from late June next year.
The Australian flag carrier will also add an additional three return flights per week between the two cities. These additional flights will increase flights on the Sydney-Santiago route from four per week to daily, adding more than “20,000 seats each year”, said the airline.
The new daily non-stop flights will depart Sydney Airport at 12:35 and arrive at Santiago International Airport at 11:10, local time.
“The change is part of the phased delivery of the national carrier’s six additional Dreamliners, as the more efficient aircraft gradually replace the Boeing 747 aircraft on Qantas’ international network by the end of 2020,” said the airline in a press release.
“Our Dreamliner has been extremely popular with customers, so we’re pleased to give those travelling between Australia and South America the opportunity to experience it,” said Qantas international acting CEO Naren Kumar.
“We launched our direct service from Sydney to Santiago in 2012 and the demand from Australians and South Americans has given us confidence to add even more flights on the route,” he added.
Qantas has a codeshare agreement with Chilean airline, LATAM. Beyond Santiago, passengers can connect to LATAM’s network with Qantas’ codeshare services to six countries and 14 destinations across South America, including Rio De Janeiro and Sao Paulo in Brazil; Bogota, Colombia; Guayaquil, Ecuador; Lima, Peru; and Montevideo, Uruguay.
The airline currently has a total of eight 787-9s in its fleet. A further six will arrive starting from October 2019, bringing the total fleet of Dreamliners to 14 in the second half of 2020.
The aircraft has 42 Business, 28 Premium Economy and 166 Economy seats.
Qantas’ Dreamliner carries 236 passengers across three cabins. The business class seats are in a 1-2-1 configuration, with a seat width of 23-24 inches, a seat pitch of 80 inches, and a seat recline of 180 degrees.
Read our review of Qantas’ Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner business class here.
