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Australia's Qantas may soon offer direct flights to Europe from Down Under

Xinhua, October 28, 2016 Adjust font size:

There is a huge possibility that Australia's flag carrier airline Qantas could be offering long-haul services to Europe once its new fleet of Boeing 787 Dreamliners is delivered in a year's time.

News Corp reported on Friday that direct flights to ­Europe could just be weeks away from being announced after Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce said that negotiations for its Perth to London route were drawing to a close.

Joyce said the airline's new Dreamliners would be capable of flying the ultra long-haul routes it had on its wish list, including its first direct flight to Europe.

"This aircraft allows us to fly routes that we could only imagine in the past," Joyce said in reference to the 236-seat Dreamliners.

"It ­allows us to fly from Perth to London, from Sydney to Chicago or Melbourne to Dallas," Joyce said.

In an email to Xinhua, Qantas confirmed that the Boeing 787 Dreamliners had the range to operate such long-haul services, however it was also quick to say that it has yet to make a formal announcement on the matter.

CMC Markets chief market strategist Michael McCarthy told Xinhua that Qantas' new long haul flight plans would definitely boast the once ailing airline's profitability well into the future.

In August, Qantas posted a record 1.17 billion U.S dollar pre-tax profit for 2015-16, a figure which amounts to 760 million U.S dollars after tax, in which Joyce had describe as "the best result in Australian aviation history, full stop."

Meanwhile, Associate Professor at University of Sydney Business School, Dr Tony Webber, an aviation expert told Xinhua that the real game changer involves starting direct services from Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane to London as these markets are massive.

"Most Aussie passengers travelling to London live on the Eastern seaboard so they will still need a break in the journey (even if they travelled via Perth)," Webber said.

"Similarly, most Europeans travelling to Australia wish to visit Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane."

"A small proportion of passengers that originate from Perth, or European passengers that wish to travel to Perth, will enjoy a single sector journey but as a proportion of the total Australia-Europe market will still be relatively small," he said. Enditem