Qantas’ longest flight will be making a fuel stop for the foreseeable future, over credible fears that Iran may attempt a missile strike on Israel…
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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 many governments now warning of Iran plotting a missile strike on Israel, 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. 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 2:25PM arriving 8:15PM
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 90-minute 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 and Melbourne 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 will be adding a refueling stop to its Perth to London flight, due to fears of an Iranian missile strike on Israel. For now this change has only officially been made for flights over the next few days, though we’ll see for how long this lasts.
What do you make of Qantas rerouting its Perth to London flight?
now that its back to regularly scheduled genocide, and airspace is open, did QF reroute?
Qantas doesn’t operate A380 flights to London via Singapore. It hasn’t done so since Qantas launched the direct flight from Perth to London. QF9 actually begins in Melbourne, and makes a fuel stop in Perth before continuing to London. However this is due to end in July, making QF9 solely a Perth-London service, leaving Melbourne without a direct connection to London until the launch of Project Sunrise flights.
Really ??? Where do you think QF 1 and QF 2 go to ?? (Ex SYD). Sorry, but it is an A380-800 service - via SIN. Shouldn't be too hard for you to check - it's a really large, double-deck frame.
I also take issue to Ben's statement that the PER-LHR will be re-routed via SIN = for the "forseeable future". QF has advised passengers on this service that it will operate via SIN *temporarily*.
...Really ??? Where do you think QF 1 and QF 2 go to ?? (Ex SYD). Sorry, but it is an A380-800 service - via SIN. Shouldn't be too hard for you to check - it's a really large, double-deck frame.
I also take issue to Ben's statement that the PER-LHR will be re-routed via SIN = for the "forseeable future". QF has advised passengers on this service that it will operate via SIN *temporarily*.
See - The quote from QF Group is as follows: https://www.9news.com.au/national/qantas-redirects-flight-to-avoid-going-over-israel-and-iran/37573937-f5e9-48bc-9c19-2efe96007bef
"We're temporarily adjusting the flight paths for our flights between Perth and London due to the situation in parts of the Middle East," a Qantas spokesperson said.
"We'll reach out to customers directly if there's any change to their booking."
The redirection will allow the plane to refuel and still carry a full load of passengers.
It's believed this disruption will be in place for the next few days at least."
Global "opinion" (and that is all it is, right now) seems to suggest that this may be in place for 3-4 weeks and will then be reviewed - dependent on what may or may NOT occur.
Good ol Iran the exporter of death and destruction
But barely anything compare to munitions made in USA.
Just a correction, Qantas doesn’t have an A380 service from MEL-SIN-LHR. You take an A330 to SIN then connect onto the SYD A380 that continues to London.
Interestingly SQ 23 JFK to SIN just overflew Iran
@Ben, could you please share why you choose to say "Türkiye" vs Turkey but dont do this for Germany or Austria for example. No judgement, just curious.
Because that's the OFFICIAL NAME of the country since last year.
This has always been its name in Turkish. Turkish government does not control what it is called in other languages. They may express a preference and others may choose to follow the request.
Yet, they did exactly that, so other countries obliged. It's not complicated.
Fairly certain that if Germany's leadership asked other nations if they could please standardize around labeling, educating students about, and referring to them only as Deutschland, the overwhelming majority would comply as well.
I imagine more would comply with a German request than a Turkish one, and no one would be asking stupid questions like the one above
Comply? Haha. The only people that need to "comply" are diplomats. You and I are free to call it Turkey.
This is on top of the mess that navigating global airspace is because of Russian airspace embargo which most western and many Asian airlines have respected. add in the war in Ukraine and navigating in the eastern hemisphere is a planning and execution nightmare.
Many airlines were overflying Iran - it is a big country - while US airlines (and any airline that codeshares with a US airline) has been prohibited from overflying Iran...
This is on top of the mess that navigating global airspace is because of Russian airspace embargo which most western and many Asian airlines have respected. add in the war in Ukraine and navigating in the eastern hemisphere is a planning and execution nightmare.
Many airlines were overflying Iran - it is a big country - while US airlines (and any airline that codeshares with a US airline) has been prohibited from overflying Iran and nearly all of Afghanistan.
It is doubtful this routing will last because it was already an attempt to cut time on a route that wasn't commercially possibly in the first place - SYD and MEL to LHR. PER was just there because that was as far as any current plane can fly.
Most UK to Australia traffic will be routed over SIN or the Middle East hubs until the A350-1000s for QF arrive.
Thank you, American imperialism!
A shame Zionist extremists keep escalating tensions and causing disruption like this. To the detriment of peace loving individuals. Shameful.
ok hezbollah
Sadly we let this happen with billions of out tax money.
Cut off the money and they ll stop.
To clarify, I assume you refer to the billions that the USA released to Iran recently?
The zionists are a curse to this world. They can do anything and no one cares to question them. They are nothing without USA and UK. Western countries should stop lecturing others about human rights. These bloody zionists are making people to hate Jews. I know there are many peace loving Jews who do not support the crimes and genocide Israel is committing.
Perhaps you meant to post on a different site. This site is about travel, not your personal bias issues. Bias can be twisted in many directions, against many different types of people. Maybe you are a curse.
Please go back to your computer and spout your rubbish on the appropriate site or better yet, book a visit to experience Teheran.
Iran is fighting a war in attempt to eliminate Israel, and I see that you're upset that not only are they failing, they also tend to shoot uninvolved airliners while they're at it.
Also Iran calls Israel the sandal devil and USA the big devil. Not because of its support of Israel but because of its liberal ideas that Islamists despise.
Hoping the removal of Israel will lead to peace is foolish. Radical Islam will proceed to the next target.
Lufthansa and Austrian, the only two western airlines flying to Tehran have suspended their flights entirely.
Qantas could easily double capacity from Perth to London and still send fully loaded jets
My god the mobile version of this site is now completely unusable because of all the junk adds
Seriously. @ben, the majority of us don’t care about breeze. Even as I type this a breeze ad has popped twice (this is the 5th time since reading this article). For the love of god please work with boarding area to fix this.
I don't see any ads from Breeze.
You see it because AI thinks you want to see it.
Blame it on Google+Meta, your device usage history, and your location.
They are stalking your every move.
OMAAT just sells an empty space.