Australia to Paris Nonstop Flights Start Friday: 17hrs in Economy, Anyone?

13.07.2024 - 01:49 / skift.com / United Airlines / Qantas Airways

Do you call July midsummer or mid-winter? It all depends which side of a major new air route you’re on.  Come July 12, one of the year’s most hotly anticipated new flights will take to the skies for the first time.

Qantas’ nonstop link from Perth in Western Australia to Paris will launch just ahead of the Olympics and Paralympics. However, with flight times of up to 17 hours and 20 minutes, this is a marathon rather than a sprint. 

Services operate four-times weekly before dropping down to thrice weekly in the second week of August. 

While notable, the new route isn’t entirely without precedent. It follows a similar path to Qantas’ existing ultra-long-haul services from Perth to both London and Rome. It is operated by the Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner, an aircraft designed for particularly long journeys. 

Qantas has previously reported high occupancy and passenger satisfaction on its Perth-London route. The airline said on average, around nine in every ten seats were occupied, suggesting many long-haul travelers are happy to strap in for 17+ hours to avoid layovers. 

Visitors keen to maximize their time in Europe can opt for Qantas’ ‘Circle Fare’. This allows travelers to return from any of the three European cities served nonstop by the Australian airline. 

The success of nonstop European flights from Perth sets the stage for Project Sunrise. This is the codename for new routes that will fly even further than Perth to Europe. Based on current schedules, Qantas will connect Sydney and Melbourne to both London and New York starting in 2026. 

If realized, they will become the world’s longest nonstop passenger flights. So ambitious is the mission, that Qantas is working with Airbus for a specially optimized version of the A350-1000 aircraft to help make the route feasible. The airline has confirmed the plane will feature a bespoke ‘wellness zone’ to help passengers say healthy in the air.

Qantas to Paris isn’t the only notable new route taking flight this summer. Here are four others that should be on your radar:

On June 28, American Airlines completed its ‘re-inaugural flight’ between New York JFK and Tokyo Haneda. The carrier resumed the route to Tokyo’s downtown airport after an absence of 11 years. It makes the carrier the only U.S. airline to fly between the two cities.

The 6,772-mile journey comes just in time for the summer rush and will leverage American’s long-standing joint-venture agreement with Japan Airlines. The partnership is likely to be important given the dominance of Japanese carriers on the route, with All Nippon Airways also flying two daily services.

American’s new daily connection uses a Boeing 777-200ER, complementing JAL’s twice-daily flights between the airports. Notably, this isn’t