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Qantas sets earlier return date of Perth-London nonstop flights

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Geoffrey ThomasThe West Australian
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The service —  QF9/10 — was scheduled to return on June 19 but will now restart on May 23.
Camera IconThe service —  QF9/10 — was scheduled to return on June 19 but will now restart on May 23. Credit: unknown/supplied

Qantas has brought forward the resumption of its Perth to London non-stop flights due to increasing demand for the airline’s most popular service.

The service — QF9/10 — was scheduled to return on June 19 but will now restart on May 23.

The current routing of the service via Darwin has been impacted by the effective closure of Russian airspace, which has meant additional fuel and lower payloads.

Qantas said that with bookings for the non-stop flights now above pre-COVID levels, Darwin to London services had very few seats available over the next six weeks.

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The flight path from Perth to London is more direct, which means there are no airspace issues and no restrictions on the number of passengers it can carry.

“The NT Government and Darwin Airport went above and beyond so that we could operate these services when WA kept its borders closed, and we’re extremely grateful for their partnership,” said Qantas International chief executive Andrew David.

“While it has been great to operate from the Top End, we’ve always said that Perth remained the long-term home of these flights.

“We’re looking forward to reconnecting Western Australia to Europe earlier than anticipated and enabling more customers to fly.”

Prior to COVID, QF9/10 was Qantas’ most popular and profitable service with passenger load factors in the mid 90 per cent.

This week, Qantas boss Alan Joyce assured the Perth-London nonstop was here to stay and that later this decade the 787s would be replaced by the more capable and spacious A350 that the airline ordered Monday.

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