Qantas’ longest flight is back to making a fuel stop for the foreseeable future, given current tensions in the Middle East.
In this post:
Qantas forced to rethink Perth to London flight
Qantas operates a nonstop flight between Perth (PER) and London (LHR) with a Boeing 787-9. At 9,010 miles, this is Qantas’ longest route, and the fourth longest route in the world. With headwinds, this route pushes the limits of the Boeing 787 in the westbound direction, even with the premium configuration of Qantas’ Dreamliners (a premium configuration means the jet is lighter, and therefore can fly longer distances).
The westbound flight regularly takes around 18 hours, or in some cases even longer. Ordinarily, the flight departs Perth and then flies straight out over the Indian Ocean, then over the Arabian Peninsula, Iraq, Türkiye, and then across Europe.
With the current increased tensions between Israel and Iran, a lot of airlines are taking precautions in the region. As a result, Qantas is having to change its routing for this service. Unfortunately when you’re already pushing the range of the 787 under normal circumstances, there’s not much leeway there.
Suffice it to say that airlines have been dealing with quite some airspace challenges in recent times. Not only have we repeatedly seen concerns with airspace in the Middle East, but with Russian airspace closed to many airlines, indirect routings are becoming the norm.
Qantas will instead route this flight via Singapore
In light of the current situation, Qantas will be rerouting its Perth to London flight, with the westbound flight making a refueling stop in Singapore. This is the second time this year that such a rerouting has occurred, as the airline did the same back in April 2024.
As of now this is scheduled through August 20, 2024, though I imagine this has the potential to be extended. Ordinarily, this journey would operate with the following schedule:
QF9 Perth to London departing 6:30PM arriving 5:05AM (+1 day)
QF10 London to Perth departing 11:55AM arriving 11:40AM (+1 day)
Meanwhile during this rerouting, the flight will instead operate with the following schedule:
QF209 Perth to Singapore departing 2:10PM arriving 8:00PM
QF209 Singapore to London departing 9:45PM arriving 5:05AM (+1 day)
QF10 London to Perth departing 11:55AM arriving 11:40AM (+1 day)
As you can see, this new routing adds over four hours to the westbound journey time, including a nearly two-hour ground stop in Singapore. Meanwhile the eastbound flight will continue to operate nonstop. In terms of direct air distance, the Singapore stop only increases the distance of the journey by around 2%, as the routing with a stop covers a distance of 9,186 miles.
For those originating in Sydney or Melbourne, this means that it’ll be a two-stop routing to get to London. Keep in mind that Qantas also operates its Airbus A380 service from Sydney to London, with a stop in Singapore, so for those not originating in Western Australia, the A380 service will probably prove to be more direct.
Eventually Qantas will be taking delivery of Airbus A350-1000s, which will offer even more range than existing Boeing 787-9s. These will also be used to operate the world’s longest flights, from Sydney and Melbourne to New York and London.
Bottom line
For the time being, Qantas is adding a refueling stop to its Perth to London flight, given increased tensions in the region. For now this change has only officially been made for flights through August 20, though we’ll see for how long this lasts.
What do you make of Qantas rerouting its Perth to London flight?
Ben loves stirring this pot for engagement.
Between Delta and Israel, that probably earned him a few grand already.
Every mention of Israel on any site creates lots of noise
and, yes, no one should be surprised that this and most other media sites live on page clicks; truth and accuracy are secondary at best
Mossad and the Israeli Secret Intelligent Service (ISIS) need to stop with their maniacal extremism and genocide. Enough is enough.
It was Palestinian extremism that started this entire debacle and they still refuse to release the remaining hostages. Hamas could end this war if they cared about their citizens, but they don’t want peace or a two state solution. They only seek destruction and death. It’s literally their manifesto.
Nakba 1948 started all of this, Vernon C.
Do some reading rather than spouting Ben Gvir’s extremist drivel.
Given that governments around the world are urging Iran to cool the threats of further attacks to Israel and Iran is using proxies to accomplish its work in the Middle East not just at Israel but the entire Middle East, there is no safe place for civilian aviation in the "heart of" the Middle East just as is true with civilian shipping which has seen civilians vessels sunk and damaged sending shipping rates higher and...
Given that governments around the world are urging Iran to cool the threats of further attacks to Israel and Iran is using proxies to accomplish its work in the Middle East not just at Israel but the entire Middle East, there is no safe place for civilian aviation in the "heart of" the Middle East just as is true with civilian shipping which has seen civilians vessels sunk and damaged sending shipping rates higher and forcing lengthy shipping reroutes.
The problem for Australia is that the only "safe" route from SE Asia to Europe - via northern India, across the "Stans", crossing the Caspian Sea at Baku, along the southern part of the Black Sea - is too far north to be viable for routes from Australia.
It is actually amazing that as much air traffic is being forced through the same "safe route" but there are scores of flights that now do it daily between Europe and Asia.
SQ's NYC-SIN flights do not overfly Iran and instead use the "safe route." Going eastbound, they can usually fly the Pacific but the earth's rotation and associated winds make it impossible to always fly the Pacific.
It is doubtful that even the QF 35Ks from SYD to LHR can fly the route nonstop if they are forced to use the "safe route" without taking even further payload restrictions.
If the current restrictions continue, will those A350-1000 make it to LHR/JFK without a fuel stop? I have a feeling all those airspace restrictions will not be lifted any time soon.
No airspace restrictions over the Pacific, so the JFK flight won’t be impacted.
RE Qantas Melbourne to London.
QF9 used to route MEL - PER - LHR and vv. Loads on the MEL - PER - MEL sector were often in the double digits so the MEL tag is no longer. The MEL tag finished the same day as PER CDG commenced.
This is the second time QF9 re-routed via SIN. It did exactly the same in APR of this year due to the same reason for a...
RE Qantas Melbourne to London.
QF9 used to route MEL - PER - LHR and vv. Loads on the MEL - PER - MEL sector were often in the double digits so the MEL tag is no longer. The MEL tag finished the same day as PER CDG commenced.
This is the second time QF9 re-routed via SIN. It did exactly the same in APR of this year due to the same reason for a period of around 14 days.
The flight departs PER around 4hr earlier than usual to allow an arrival time at LHR the same as usual (05:05).
The PER - LHR flights are operated by LHR based Qantas crews who will now operate LHR - PER - SIN - LHR.
Isn't this the second or third time they've had to do this, for the same reason? Sucks.
Qantas operates QF1 Sydney-London via Singapore on the A380. There is no flight linking Melbourne to London via anywhere at the moment. QF9 used to originate in Melbourne, but this has since been axed in favour of a Perth-London only flight.
10th July seems to be the last time QF9 originated in Melbourne.
It will last until Iran decides to shut up again with all those delusional tales and threat's and divert again to using Hezbollah and Hamas instead of attacking directly. Although Hamas kinda got destroyed already really, now it's mainly just Hezbollah that's left for Iran.
Adam is more boring than Ben Gvir....
@Adam
Yeah, keep supporting the Israeli imperialism.
The fact that y'all assume my dismay towards Iran and Hamas means I'm a Ben gvir supporter tells more about you than me. Ben gvir is a terroist himself and also doesn't have excuses. Keep supporting islamist terroist organizations, in fact I know that the houtins invited y'all for their learning camp if you're that eager to help them and their counterparts.
Man, i said you are boring, boring in the sense this is a travel blog and im not keen on hearing your policy agenda (fair or not!).
I read everyday TOI and that shocking statement that im promoting whatever you want because YOU are annoying is just baseless, absurd and dumb..
You're not fooling anyone Adam.
In a world full of illegitimate governments, the only thing that can keep them in check is other illegitimate governments. Lord knows the US doesn’t mind Ben Gvirs terror. The right wing supports it and the liberals pretend to oppose it unless they are in power.
@Speedbird
Let’s get some delusional tales up Benjamin Netanyahu‘s ass. His time has come.
Will QF209 join QF1 as a fifth-freedom flight?