Qantas to complete world’s first non-stop flight between Australia and UK

Qantas will complete the world’s first non-stop journey between Australia's Northern Territory and the UK. Picture: Instagram/Qantas.

Qantas will complete the world’s first non-stop journey between Australia's Northern Territory and the UK. Picture: Instagram/Qantas.

Published Mar 25, 2020

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Qantas will complete the world’s first non-stop journey between Australia's Northern Territory and the UK, The Sun reported. 

The move is to get UK travellers home amid the current covid-19 outbreak that has spread across the globe. 

The Sun reported that Qantas usually flew to London via Singapore, but due to travel bans in Singapore, there will be a direct flight instead. 

The flight will take approximately 16 hours and 40 minutes. 

According to CNN Travel, Darwin was a stop on the original Kangaroo Route in the 1930s, which took 37 days and included 10 stops.

This is not the first time Qantas aeroplane pushed boundaries. 

Last year, it travelled from New York to Sydney. The 19-hour flight set a record as being the world's longest nonstop commercial passenger flight.

The Boeing 787-9′s 16 199km journey took months to plan. Qantas Group chief executive Alan Joyce said at the time that this was a really significant first for aviation. 

“Hopefully, it's a preview of a regular service that will speed up how people travel from one side of the globe to the other,” said Joyce.

For the New York-to-Sydney test, the passenger and baggage load was restricted to control the weight on the plane. Medical researchers and scientists worked with Qantas to make adjustments to cabin lighting, and in-flight meals were adjusted to reduce jet lag.

Rather than starting with dinner and then lights off, as night flights typically operate, the research flight began with lunch and the lights were kept on for six hours to mirror the destination's time of day.

Qantas Captain Sean Golding, who led the four pilots operating the service, said the ultralong journey went "really smoothly”. 

 

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