Qantas debuted its first direct flight between Melbourne and Dallas/Fort Worth on Saturday 3 December with the new route joining the existing MEL-LAX non-stop service, increasing seats from Victoria to the US to more than 6,000 each month.
The thrice-weekly service will operate on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays aboard Qantas’ Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft, departing Melbourne at 2pm and landing in Dallas/Fort Worth at 12:45pm local time.
The MEL-DFW direct service will be the fourth-longest route in the world and the longest route ex Melbourne, clocking in at 5 hours, 45 minutes outbound and 17 hours, 25 minutes return.
As one of the biggest hubs in the United States, Dallas/Fort Worth is located less than a four-hour flight from every major city, connecting Aussie travellers to more than 200 destinations across North America through airline partners.
Qantas’ joint business partner American Airlines will offer codeshare services on this flight as part of the joint network into Australia, marketing and selling the route to its customers across North America.
Qantas Domestic & International CEO Andrew David said the airline was excited to provide another new international destination from Melbourne amid strong travel demand.
“We’ve already seen a great response to these flights since they went on sale, not just from those wanting to visit Dallas, but for travellers wanting to take advantage of the excellent connections to popular destinations like Orlando, Miami and Boston,” he said.
“New routes also open up new opportunities to bring more visitors to Australia. We’d like to thank the Victorian Government and Melbourne Airport for their support and collaboration in getting this route up and running.”
Melbourne Airport CEO Lorie Argue said: “This is the first time Victoria has a non-stop connection to a North American city not located on the west coast and will help provide local travellers and exporters with faster and easier access while bringing more international tourists to Victoria.”
Summer school holidays
The new route commencement comes as Qantas and Jetstar gear up for Australia’s summer school holidays.
The Group expects to carry more than 8 million people over the festive holiday period with a particularly high demand for leisure travel.
While capacity growth is temporarily limited due to an operational buffer (including a $200 million investment in standby resources), more aircraft will be entering service and several new international routes will start before Christmas, including the direct MEL-DFW service.
Qantas will resume seasonal flights in December for Adelaide-Hobart, Adelaide-Gold Coast, Canberra-Sunshine Coast, Canberra-Cairns, Brisbane-Launceston and Melbourne-Merimbula.
Qantas’ operational performance lifted in October with the latest BITRE report showing the Qantas network (Qantas and QantasLink) reported the best on-time arrivals and departures percentages, followed by Rex Airlines, the Virgin Australia network and Jetstar.
To find out more, head to qantas.com/au
