First Nonstop Australia- Continental Europe Flight Took Off

With the official debut of its Perth-Rome flights on Saturday night, Qantas now has a second long-haul, non-stop route to Europe.

To mark the QF5’s departure, an accordion player and a gelato cart entertained passengers checking in at Perth Airport’s Terminal 4.

The route, which was announced in December and will use Boeing 787 Dreamliners, is the first non-stop service connecting Australia to continental Europe and will slash the current fastest flight time to Rome by three hours. It comes after the introduction of non-stop Perth-to-London flights in 2018, marking Australia’s first non-stop air connection to the United Kingdom.

Passengers can board QF5 in Sydney before flying to Perth for a four-hour layover before flying to Europe.

The first commercial aircraft got off half an hour late on Saturday night but made up time in the air to arrive in Rome 20 minutes early, at 8.45 a.m.

Earlier in the week, the airline flew two sold-out special points-booking-only flights for frequent fliers, but Saturday’s trip marked the first real commercial flight.

The launch follows the announcement on Friday of two additional nonstop routes from Perth to Johannesburg and Jakarta, bringing the airline’s total number of foreign services to eight since borders opened last November.

The addition of new foreign routes comes as the airline reduces capacity on its domestic network due to high oil prices. Flights on the congested Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane routes will be reduced by 10% until March of next year.

Qantas has been chastised in recent months for cancelled and delayed flights, as well as high wait times for customer care, with CEO Alan Joyce claiming that capacity reduction would help alleviate these issues.

Alan Joyce, CEO of Qantas, stated in Perth that direct flights are the way of the future.

“We’re seeing an increasing preference for non-stop flights to and from Australia to make the travel experience as efficient and easy as possible and we expect that will be a permanent shift in the way people want to travel,” he said.

Following the success of its nonstop flights to London, Qantas has teamed up with Tourism Western Australia to establish Perth as a stopover hub for Australians looking to avoid the usual Singapore or Middle Eastern stops, establishing a new international wing in the domestic T3 terminal with a dedicated international transit lounge.

Western Australian Premier Mark McGowan described the new Rome service as a historic event that cemented Western Australia’s strong ties to Italy and Europe.

“This new direct service will allow WA to grow visitation and spend into WA, helping diversify our economy and supporting long-term jobs,” he said.

The non-stop Rome service, which will operate three times a week from Perth on Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday, will be seasonal, operating only during Europe’s peak holiday season from June 22 to October 6.

Passengers will be able to book a single return ticket between Rome and London, opting to fly a round route into one city and out of the other.

Post-pandemic, the airline’s Project Sunrise has resumed, with the goal of providing nonstop flights from Australia’s east coast to London and New York.

The question now is, which city will be the next? Joyce has hinted that the airline’s European destinations may be expanded to include cities such as Paris and Frankfurt.