ONE YEAR ON: Qantas’ PER-LON flights are fast, always full & turning a profit

Qantas has declared its ground-breaking non-stop service between Perth & London a success, with every flight taking off at full capacity & contributing to a practically instantaneous profit.

A year after taking the risk of launching a service that operates for what was previously deemed by travellers as an uncomfortably long period of time, Qantas is celebrating the route’s many achievements, including a massive boost to local tourism as well as a change to Europe-Australia travel patterns.

An elated Group Chief Executive Alan Joyce said he believes the carrier has exceeded the high expectations surrounding the flight, both within the Qantas community and the broader aviation industry.

He was particularly impressed by the immediate demand for the route and its ability to turnover a profit within its first 12 months. Its popularity among travellers, Joyce believes, emerged from the work put into designing comfortable cabins and managing passenger jetlag, such as comfier seats and a yoga studio inside the airline’s Perth lounge, which is used by more than 80 percent of passengers.

Joyce also attributed the flight’s success to unplanned record-breaking speed records in both directions that have seen tourists arrive in London from Perth in under 16.5 hours.

“Despite all the complicated logistics and technical challenges, there have been only been four cancelled flights out of 720 planned services for a reliability rating of 99.5 per cent,” Joyce added.

“That’s a credit to the literally hundreds of Qantas people behind the scenes involved in making everything work smoothly.”

Other achievements of the Perth-London service include a $101 million increase in visitor spend in Perth, including $2.3 million in Perth Airport alone. The service created and supports some 601 full-time jobs, drived more than one million visitor nights in Western Australia and generated $100 million of free publicity for the state.

Qantas’ non-stop service also influenced flying patterns among 30 percent of Aussie travellers who took up flying to Europe via Perth for the first time over the past year.

Here’s to another successful year (and more ultra-long-haul flights)!