First Class Kit on the Qantas A350-1000 Ultra Long Range.
Courtesy: Qantas
Long flights are back.
That is one of the clearest signs that airlines are betting that the rebound in international travel, devastated by the Covid pandemic, will proceed to grow.
On Wednesday, Qantas launched a service between Latest York and Sydney with a stopover in Auckland, Latest Zealand Boeing 787 Dreamliners, as an alternative of the previous stop in Los Angeles. But the Australian carrier is specializing in even longer routes: non-stop flights from Sydney to Latest York and London. Flights could be recorded after about 20 hours, enough time to watch most of the Star Wars Skywalker saga.
“You haven’t got to take off your suitcases, you haven’t got to change trains, you haven’t got a probability of a misconnection,” Qantas CEO Alan Joyce told CNBC on Thursday at the airline’s Latest York City unveiling. The airline estimates that the latest routes could cut journey times by greater than three hours compared to connecting flights at other airports.
For eight years, Qantas has been working with sleep scientists who’ve studied passenger moods, sleep patterns and food intake in the hope of reducing the impact of jet lag on very long flights. Keeping passengers awake for longer with cabin lights helps combat the effects of jet lag upon arrival at their destination.
Qantas plans to operate the latest aircraft non-stop on the very long-range Airbus A350-1000 aircraft as early as late 2025. They’ll accommodate 238 passengers, significantly lower than the greater than 350 passengers that standard versions of the aircraft can accommodate. Qantas has reduced the number of people on board to accommodate more spacious seats and to take note of the aircraft’s weight and range.
The airline has ordered 12 special aircraft.
“Qantas is the only airline willing to do that. Because from Australia we’re to date from every thing that we are able to justify no less than 12 [of these] by plane,” said Joyce.
The aircraft will feature six self-contained first-class suites that include a dining table for 2, a recliner, a 32-inch touchscreen TV and a 2-meter (over 6.5-foot) platform. It is going to even have 52 business class suites with fold-out beds and 40 premium economy seats, and 140 economy class seats.
They’ll even have what Qantas calls a “well-being zone,” which has stretching bars, on-screen exercise guides, and refreshments. Wi-Fi shall be free, Qantas said.
Joyce said the airline’s international aviation capability has returned to 85% of pre-pandemic levels and expects it to fully get well by March next yr.
Passengers aboard QF7879 undergo exercise classes on a direct flight from London to Sydney on November 15, 2019 in Sydney, Australia.
James D. Morgan | Getty Images
Nevertheless, while very long-range flights are technically possible with more efficient engines and aircraft, they face other challenges.
“There’s the technical feasibility, after which there’s the economic feasibility,” said Robert Mann, an aviation industry analyst and former airline executive.
For instance, Singapore Airlines launched a non-stop flight from Newark, Latest Jersey to Singapore in 2004, which took roughly 18 hours (times may vary depending on wind and other aspects), relied on business travel and that customers between the two destinations destinations pays to avoid a transfer at one other airport. In 2008, it offered reconfigurable cabins that contained only 100 business class seats in the A340-500.
Nevertheless it stopped flying in 2013 when the carrier got rid of its fuel-hungry, four-engined plane. It relaunched it in 2018, offering a combination of premium business and economy class seats, pausing it for the duration of the pandemic, and relaunching it last yr.
In November 2020, the carrier introduced the currently longest flight in the world from the international airport of John F. Kennedy in Latest York to Singapore.
Here is an outline of the world’s longest flights by distance, according to the airline company OAG: