Qantas eyes Sydney-London direct flights

It was down almost 9 per cent on last year’s record $1.5 billion.

Qantas have announced an ambitious new goal that could revolutionise the way Aussies travel overseas – non-stop flights, direct from our east coast to NY and London by the year 2022.

John Strickland, director at JLS Consulting, told CNBC Friday that a 20-hour direct journey to Sydney or Melbourne from London would generate higher fares for the airline.

Mr Joyce put the new routes on the table as he announced Qantas profits fell for the year, after last year’s result was boosted by the sale of its Sydney domestic terminal lease.

Qantas, which once again started offering a dividend in 2016 after seven years of not offering one, kept it at 7 cents a share.

Shares in Qantas rose 3.10 percent to Aus$5.98 in Sydney on Friday.

Qantas has been simulating the Perth to London route daily over the past six months, analysing the Boeing 787’s performance against the winds of the day. The operating profit margin at the worldwide unit fell 3.2 percentage points to 5.7 percent, but Qantas said the pace of capacity growth by competitors has slowed.

“Combined, Qantas and Jetstar now have around 90 percent of the domestic profit pool and a widening margin advantage over their competitors”, Joyce added.

Drastic restructuring, a boom in domestic travel and a well-timed exit from unprofitable mining industry routes have helped Qantas deliver its second-highest underlying full-year profit result on record.

“Both manufacturers are developing aircraft that can nearly do the job-the Boeing 777X and the Airbus A350ULR”.

Airbus said in a statement its A350-900 ULR will be in service next year for flights of up to 20 hours.

On Friday, as part of its financial results announcement, Australia’s national carrier will announce that it has challenged the manufacturers to create an aircraft that could take travellers from Sydney, Melbourne or Brisbane to London and NY – without a stopover needed. New lounges at both ends of the Perth-London route will be completed during fiscal year 2018, the airline said.

An A380 aircraft of Qantas takes off from Sydney global airport en route to Dubai on Tuesday.

The airline has for some time harboured ambitions of nonstop flights from Sydney to the two cities sitting on the other side of the world that are among Australia’s most popular outbound destinations.