(Recast) Qantas to begin non-stop Australia-Europe flight in 2018

Australia's flag carrier Qantas Airways will begin non-stop Australia-Europe flights with an updated Kangaroo Route in March 2018.

Qantas on Sunday announced its Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner will service a non-stop Perth-London route, becoming the third longest passenger flight in the world at 14,498 kilometers.

"When Qantas created the Kangaroo Route to London in 1947, it took four days and nine stops. Now it will take just 17 hours from Perth non-stop," Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce said in a statement.

"This is a game-changing route flown by a game-changing aircraft. Australians have never had a direct link to Europe before, so the opportunities this opens up are huge."

The announcement ends months of speculation of what route Qantas would use its Dreamliner on after Joyce continually made reference to routes "that we could only imagine in the past."

The route is touted as a tourism boom for struggling Western Australia state in the grips of recession from the downturn in mining construction.

It's expected travellers to Australia will begin their journey with a stop in Perth before moving onwards, while modelling shows passengers from the east coast of Australia would fly to the west for the non-stop service, Joyce said.

"A direct flight makes travelling to Australia a much more attractive proposition to millions of people," Joyce said. Endit