Qantas’ newest destination in the United States isn’t necessarily what you might expect, though in fairness, the route also won’t be around for that long.
In this post:
Qantas will fly nonstop to Las Vegas for first time
Qantas plans to launch a new seasonal route between Sydney (SYD) and Las Vegas (LAS), marking the first-ever regularly scheduled nonstop flight between Australia and Las Vegas. The service will operate 3x weekly between December 29, 2026, and March 12, 2027, with the following schedule:
QF55 Sydney to Las Vegas departing 9:00PM arriving 3:55PM
QF56 Las Vegas to Sydney departing 8:20PM arriving 6:35AM (+2 days)
The 7,720-mile will operate in both directions on Sundays, Tuesdays, and Fridays. The eastbound flight is blocked at 13hr55min, while the westbound flight is blocked at 15hr15min. Qantas will use a Boeing 787-9 for the route, featuring 236 seats, including 42 business class seats, 28 premium economy seats, and 166 economy seats.
Here’s how Qantas International CEO Cam Wallace describes this:
“Australians’ appetite for international travel continues to be incredibly strong. Rome and Sapporo have shown us there’s real demand for seasonal services to destinations people want to visit at certain times of year, and we’re continuing to expand those direct connections around the world.”
“Our historic fleet renewal is giving us the flexibility to deploy aircraft where we see demand, opening up route possibilities that simply weren’t there before. Las Vegas becomes our 101st destination and is a great example of how we’re using that capability. This growth also creates real opportunities for our people, particularly our pilots and cabin crew, as we expand where we fly.”
This seems like a sensible but unique route addition
Ultimately we’re talking about a very limited time service here, as we’ll see 30(ish) flights operated in each direction. So, is there merit to this route?
The timing for this service is strategic, not just coinciding with peak season for visiting Australia, but it also operates during some of Las Vegas’ biggest global events and expos, including the Consumer Electronics (CES), as well as the Las Vegas Festival, an annual National Rugby League (NRL) event, which is popular with Australians.
It’s also noted how Australia ranks as the top international market without a nonstop flight to Las Vegas, and over 250,000 Australians visit Las Vegas each year.
So this seems like a smart, strategic route, and I’m sure the airline will have no issues filling these planes with good yields, especially given the short season. However, I wouldn’t expect year-round service, and think it’s much more likely that we see nonstop flights from somewhere in Australia to Chicago (ORD), Seattle (SEA), etc.
Bottom line
As of late 2026, Qantas will be launching a new seasonal route between Sydney and Las Vegas. The route will operate 3x weekly for a little over two months, and it’s well timed around CES and other peak season travel. It’s very cool to see a nonstop link between a city and a country for the first time, though yeah, I wouldn’t expect this route on a year-round basis anytime soon.
What do you make of Qantas adding Las Vegas flights?
How exactly is this ''unique''? Someone needs to consult a goddamn dictionary. Damn seppo.
Good luck getting award seats
Qantas has become expensive and stingy
But I do like them but fly others being they are tight fisted with inventory
Exactly the points you mentioned for the time of year and the temporary route
Surprised that they're not starting the route early enough to pick up the F1 traffic, especially with as Aussie in a top team who will likely be in contention for the championship.
The comments re -- Las Vegas dying are perhaps missing the context, at least from down here in Australia, because that doesn't really matter:
This is an extremely short-lived, 3x per week seasonal route that perfectly aligns with the parade of CES and other tech conventions and conferences in Las Vegas during January that soaks up a lot of business travel, the NRL tour that has less to do with Las Vegas and more to...
The comments re -- Las Vegas dying are perhaps missing the context, at least from down here in Australia, because that doesn't really matter:
This is an extremely short-lived, 3x per week seasonal route that perfectly aligns with the parade of CES and other tech conventions and conferences in Las Vegas during January that soaks up a lot of business travel, the NRL tour that has less to do with Las Vegas and more to do with the fact it's simply there, and January summer/school holidays in Australia.
Qantas will have no trouble filling these flights particularly in Jan and Feb. Extending it a tad bit longer will help collect even more data as to how the route might do more broadly and during less peak periods.
Qantas is short of aircraft and very conservative with their route planning even when they're not. They wouldn't do this unless they know it will be successful and its return in 2027 will likely only be a question of whether they can make even more flying somewhere else.
Return in 2028**. How time flies.
Well this might certainly help with the 1/2 empty hotel rooms, sell a few more $10 coffees, and $30 martinis, and $150 per person lounges at the pools.
Vegas sucks. But for some reason, Aussies have always been drawn to Sin City.
And you do know other hotels exist in the city, not just the strip. Stay away. Detroit and NYC sucks, stay there Eastie.
Not just for Australians but many of us Americans will take advantage of this new route. I've been going to Sydney every year since 2023 and can't wait for this flight to start. Now, I won't have to connect through LAX or DFW. Nice.
As one that has lived in Las vegas for 36 years, and because of the time of year that they will operate, this flight will be successful. They will have a great success selling business class on this route.
Curious how this will work given the hot temperatures. Is the departure time good enough to not need a payload restriction?
It’s from December to March. Las Vegas is generally not at all that hot then. I checked and next week around 26c. In December and January it can be positively freezing.
I had frost on my car last week in February so it definitely got under 0c
There's been snow in the mountains since November here.
This is northern winter seasonal, so temperature is not a worry.
Qantas' logic seems to make sense here. If it works for 2026-27, I imagine the 2027-28 season will be extended to also include the annual F1 race in Las Vegas (this year, the race is being held a week before Thanksgiving).
This is a stupid route and unlikely to be the best use of this aircraft.
Qantas is extremely conservative when it comes to adding new destinations, and I don't doubt they've crunched the numbers very carefully before announcing this route. An estimated 250K Australians visit Vegas every year, so I'm sure more than a few will take the nonstop instead of the tiresome schlep through bloody LAX. Las Vegas also offers connections all across North America; and once again, it's a lot less painful than LAX or DFW.
We'll see. I suspect some govt entity is subsidizing this flight. I doubt there will be many people connecting in LAS since there are no obvious partners.
Worth considering that most AA hubs don't have nonstop flights to Australia.
If even other AA hubs like Chicago or Philadelphia is your final destination, connecting via LAS rather than LAX or DFW is appealing.
Makes sense, the only people who are still willing to go to the US for leisure are bogans
"Still willing to go to the US".
US traffic is only down a few percentage points overall, and remains one of the top 5 most visited countries in the world. Majority are still doing it.
While almost every country is registering record tourist arrivals, curiously, the only one registering a decline is the US. But for the MAGAs, everything is normal...
Crazy people!
it's not normal. But realistically if it's 5% down not 90% that's still a lot of people. So unless you are saying 95% all people are "bogans" your statement is just incorrect.
Now if we are arguing whether 95 % of all people are idiots then I'd be on board with this but it's not really related to visiting the US. (And 95% Americans are idiots won't cut it because they don't visit the US they are stuck there)
How many of that percentage is for leisure though or just people who are traveling for work and just hoping things will be different in a few years time?
Does the US air traffic being down include domestic travel? If so, it wouldn't be surprising if international arrivals dropped even more than that.
Bogans do love Trump though, they've just agreed to build a Trump Tower there, and given the record of everything...
How many of that percentage is for leisure though or just people who are traveling for work and just hoping things will be different in a few years time?
Does the US air traffic being down include domestic travel? If so, it wouldn't be surprising if international arrivals dropped even more than that.
Bogans do love Trump though, they've just agreed to build a Trump Tower there, and given the record of everything Trump touches turns to sht, it'll be interesting to see if that name can single handedly pop the long overinflated property market in Australia too.
No, it's pretty clear the context is international traffic, domestic travel isn't related to their dumb assertion about people "still willing to go to the US".
The US is one of the most visited countries in the world from an international standpoint. You're all acting like there is a massive collapse and the visitor numbers are that of Somaliland. The reality is that 99% of people choosing to visit the US will still be fine.
This is a good example, as both Somaliland and Somalia saw an almost 50% increase in tourist arrivals last year.
Meanwhile in the US...
Cope and seethe, millennial
LAX used to be the third busiest in the world. Now it’s dropped to 13th with around 2 million fewer international passengers than last year. As far as MAGA is concerned everything is perfect and they live in Shanghai la.
LAX traffic has been down since COVID, but nice attempt to try and correlate unrelated things.
Yep, sad. The numbers have dropped much more than some ppl let on. I'm talking intl arrivals to the good ol' US of A. Heck, look at Canadian snowbirds steep drop in numbers. As for the MAGAts around me, I concur plus they believe the lies of the Dear Leader. Delusional bunch. Hope we survive this. smfh
Their A321XLR will also be making it's international debut - with domestic recliners in Business Class!
QANTAS are swapping out their current A330 with flat beds on the BNE-MNL route to the A321XLR.
8hr block time! eeewwww
So odd. They really should just focus on getting the nonstop SYD-JFK up and running.
Oh YEAH, because they can't do two things at once. SMH
Given that they are reducing MEL-LAX from an A380 to a 787 citing lack of demand, I cannot imagine there is any haste to get JFK up and running.
I think LHR will be the launch route for sunrise.
How is MEL to LAX relevant to JFK to SYD? A completely different set of city pairs.
Well Julia....put it this way.
Let's take Australia - US as an overall market.
Currently, Qantas flies 5 x per week from SYD to JFK via AKL - using a 787. It currently flies from both SYD and MEL to LAX daily using an A380. So, we can see from the outset that JFK has significantly less demand than LAX. And LAX is seeing a reduction,
Now let's look at project sunrise. Two routes have...
Well Julia....put it this way.
Let's take Australia - US as an overall market.
Currently, Qantas flies 5 x per week from SYD to JFK via AKL - using a 787. It currently flies from both SYD and MEL to LAX daily using an A380. So, we can see from the outset that JFK has significantly less demand than LAX. And LAX is seeing a reduction,
Now let's look at project sunrise. Two routes have been announced. SYD - LHR and JFK. SYD - LHR is currently served daily by an A380 via SIN, compared to JFK on a 787-9.
I think with both those scenarios you can work out that demand for SYD LHR is quite a bit higher than SYD JFK.
You realize it's range limitations, not demand right? The amount of gauge used on LAX doesn't equate demand, it equate capacity. LAX is a gateway to the rest of the US.
The majority of the US population centers are on the East Coast. It's simply because it's not possible to fly directly to JFK from SYD, so they fly people in from LAX. This isn't very difficult to figure out.
JFK to SYD is...
You realize it's range limitations, not demand right? The amount of gauge used on LAX doesn't equate demand, it equate capacity. LAX is a gateway to the rest of the US.
The majority of the US population centers are on the East Coast. It's simply because it's not possible to fly directly to JFK from SYD, so they fly people in from LAX. This isn't very difficult to figure out.
JFK to SYD is a separate market from LAX to MEL. You're basically comparing BOS to LHR with JFK to CDG.
But it is exactly the same to London from Sydney. There is no non stop flight. So it has to go via somewhere (SIN or PER).
Obviously pax to LAX (and DFW) are continuing to all over the US. But NYC is nowhere near the top three continuing destinations (which are LAS (hence the announcement today), SEA, ORD.
In regards to the US market in general I will leave you with the comms sent from...
But it is exactly the same to London from Sydney. There is no non stop flight. So it has to go via somewhere (SIN or PER).
Obviously pax to LAX (and DFW) are continuing to all over the US. But NYC is nowhere near the top three continuing destinations (which are LAS (hence the announcement today), SEA, ORD.
In regards to the US market in general I will leave you with the comms sent from the Manager - International to staff today:
Although demand from the US remains strong there has been a significant reduction in Australian originating passengers to the US.....we're reallocating capacity from other US markets during that period, with Sydney-Los Angeles reducing from daily to six times per week, Brisbane-Los Angeles reducing from daily to six times per week and Auckland-New York reducing from five to four times per week between late December and mid-March. Additionally, Melbourne - Los Angeles will switch from an A380 to a 787 with the airbus being redeployed between Sydney - Singapore.
There's a woman at the helmet. They can multi task.
I would have thought that Macau would be a lot closer.
Have you been to Australia? Our drink prices are ridiculous. At least in Vegas you get decent pours.
@ CJ: Have you seen the drink prices in Vegas?
And I have been to Australia many times. I don't drink so I don't care about the prices. I don't see the business case for this flight and its sustainability.
So is Hong kong and there's a stack of flights going there and Macao is a quick high speed boat ride across the Pearl River.
Australians love to drink. I can imagine the flight crews providing spotty service from being hung-over train wrecks from their Vegas layovers.
But will they be able to afford the drink prices in Vegas...
Dumb comment.
Not really not at all
In addition, Australian schools have a summer break which covers Christmas and most if not all of January. But I would expect that families would tolerate an LAX arrival.
Is this new route focused on the Australia point of sale? Tourism to Las Vegas is down sharply in 2025 (something like 7.5%) and demand for travel to the US also down significantly.
"demand for travel to the US also down significantly."
I love the obsession with this untrue narrative. Why pretend there's a massive collapse, at best it's down by a few percentage points, for certain countries traffic has gone up. The US remains one of the top 5 most visited countries in the world.
While almost every country is registering record tourist arrivals, curiously, the only one registering a decline is the US. But for the MAGAs, everything is normal...
Crazy people!
You are correct and a lot of it has to do with Currency Exchange Rates, which are very unfavorable to travelers from many countries, including Australia and New Zealand.
The exchange rate for Australian travellers in the US is the best it's been for about four years.
The only reason why it's down only marginally is that most of those travelers already booked their trips in 2024. Last year was just the tip of the iceberg. And which countries has it gone up for air travel demand to the US? As far as Europe goes, the only increase was Great Britain at a very paltry 0.5% (which makes air travel demand from the UK near stagnant).