In case you missed all the hullabaloo yesterday, Qantas launched a seven-hour, border-free scenic flight across Australia, flying on one of its beautiful Dreamliner 787-9’s – The Great Southern Land. And the demand was…
Err, huge. So much so that when tickets for the flight went live at noon yesterday, it sold out in under ten minutes.
Cue sad faces. Us included.
Qantas says putting on the flight was in response to strong demand from nagging frequent flyers who say they are missing the experience of flying.
They’re certainly not alone there.
To be fair, there were only 130 seats available for this flight and most probably got snapped up by Platinum Frequent Flyers but still, that’s an incredible amount of demand to get back on a plane.
“We knew this flight would be popular, but we didn’t expect it to sell out in 10 minutes,” a Qantas spokesperson said.
“It’s probably the fastest selling flight in Qantas history.”
The ‘Great Southern Land’ scenic flight will take place on Saturday 10 October on a Boeing 787 Dreamliner, an aircraft usually reserved for international flying and the famed direct Perth – London route.
Qantas’ border-free ‘Great Southern Land’ flight will depart from Sydney on Saturday 10 October and head up the New South Wales coast, cross the Queensland border to fly over the Gold Coast, Brisbane and Sunshine Coast before continuing north to fly over the Whitsundays and Great Barrier Reef.
It will then track across the country to Uluru and Kata Tjuta to showcase the iconic red centre. The experience will finish with a low-level circuit of Sydney Harbour before landing back at Sydney.
Tickets for the seven-hour flight from Sydney started from $1,787 in Economy, $1,787 in Premium Economy and $3,787 in Business Class.
Singapore Airlines are reportedly also considering three-hour flights ‘to nowhere’ out of Changi Airport on their A350 aircraft in response to demand for flights to literally anywhere right now.
The positives we can all take from this? People are gagging to get back on a plane and start travelling again.
Here’s hoping we see more initiatives like this in the short term, but most importantly, get Australia’s borders open again as soon as possible so we can reconnect the nation and get moving again.
READ: Fancy A Qantas Scenic Flight Across Australia On A Dreamliner