The longest flight in the world has officially been given the go ahead this week, after Qantas announced it will run a service between Perth and London.
Taking 17 and a half hours between the UK and Australia, the flights were given sign off after airline Qantas announced their plans to run the service from March 2018.
The 14,498km flights will overtake the current world’s longest flight, between Dubai and Auckland, that’s 16 hours and 35 minutes.
According to Qantas, the original journey from London to Australia used to take four days with nine stops. So it’s pretty incredible to imagine by 2018 this can be done in one stint.
“From Melbourne and Sydney and all other destinations in Australia, it will save you an hour going through Perth compared to Dubai or Singapore or other destinations,” said Qantas spokesperson Alan Joyce.
As part of the plan to run the flights, the state government in Australia is putting $14 million into upgrading Perth airport, including better border control and quarantine facilities.
