Twenty hours and 20 minutes: The world's longest flight is departing soon
Australia's Qantas Airways hopes to offer direct flights from London to Sydney by 2020
By Justin Bachman, Bloomberg News, August 30, 2017, 9:35 PM EDT, http://nationalpost.com/news/w...est-flight-is-coming
Alan Joyce, chief executive officer of Qantas Airways Ltd., center, poses for a photograph with the company's pilots and co-pilots in Sydney, Australia, on Friday, Aug. 25, 2017. Qantas hopes to offer a direct flight from Sydney to London by 2020.
Pretty much everyone prefers a nonstop flight — business people, especially. And they are more likely than most to be in a position to afford the premium. But right now, all the money in the world won’t get you from Sydney to the Big Apple or U.K. without a pit stop, because commercial planes just don’t have that kind of range. That may soon change.
For many years, executives at Australian carrier Qantas Airways Ltd. have coveted a nonstop offering from Sydney and Melbourne to London. Now, as technology has matured, Qantas executives finally see the potential to realize that dream. Two new models planned by Airbus SE and Boeing Co., they hope, will be able to make the nonstop trip to London — 20 hours and 20 minutes — from Sydney. This new model would also jet across the Pacific Ocean to New York in about 18 hours.