This week marks exactly one year since Qantas launched its Perth – London Heathrow flight. It was the first time in history that Australia and the UK were connected with a NON-STOP flight.
Qantas made an analysis about this route and here are results:
Average Perth–London flight time – 17 hours 01 min, fastest PER > LHR 16hr 19mins.
Average London–Perth flight time – 16 hours 05 mins, fastest LHR > PER 15hr 15mins.
Each flight is around 14,000kms for a total of 10.2 million kilometres travelled on the route so far.
Flights have an average load factor of 94%, which is a great achievement.
In the first year, 155.000 passengers traveled on this route.
Passengers on this route by nationality:
- 59% – Australians
- 31% – British
- 7% – Rest of Europe
- 3% – Other
The new service is also attracting people from other parts of Australia to Perth to join the service, with average outbound passengers made up of 25% from Melbourne, 7% from Sydney, 6% from Brisbane, 4% from Adelaide, 2.5% Canberra and a smaller percentage from other cities across Australia.
Perth was a start or end point for about 50% of passengers on this route.
It’s interesting that some passengers travel on this route even from New Zealand and other international destinations.
80% of customers in Qantas Perth Lounge are using the stretching class at their yoga studio.
450,000+ meals served. Over 42,000 Tim Tams eaten.
Most popular meals in Business Class: Cone Bay Barramundi and Beef and Yorkshire Pudding. Most popular meal in Economy: Guinness beef pie with potato mash.
White wine is the top choice in Economy; Red is the most popular in Business and Premium Economy.
Glasses of wine consumed:
- 146,000 white
- 144,000 red
- 77,000 sparkling
Most watched film on the route so far: Mission Impossible – Fallout
Binge watching TV series is a popular pastime, with top three series being Ballers, Billions and Modern Family.
Wow fact!: Seat 56F has watched the most entertainment of any seat onboard at a total of 9,134hours since the service launched – 100 hours more than any other seat!
Qantas Group CEO Alan Joyce said: “There were a lot of expectations around this flight, both within Qantas and the broader community, and frankly it’s exceeded them. A year of operating this route shows that a hub in WA connecting Australia to the world works really well. We have people coming from the east coast to join the flight and it’s made it a lot easier for people in Europe to visit Australia. Almost every flight is full and it turned a profit almost immediately, which is rare for new services because they have start up costs and it normally takes time to build demand. The work we put into managing passenger jetlag and designing a comfortable cabin has paid off. It’s the longest flight on our entire network but it has the highest level of customer satisfaction. We didn’t plan to regularly break speed records in both directions. The current title holder arrived into Perth from London a full hour ahead schedule thanks to prevailing winds and our new flight planning system. 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. That’s a credit to the literally hundreds of Qantas people behind the scenes involved in making everything work smoothly.”
Photo: © Qantas
