First direct flight Australia-London

perth - A Boeing 787 Dreamliner from the Australian airline Qantas flies this weekend directly from Perth in Australia to London in 17 hours and 20 minutes. It is a first for aviation, the company Qantas reported at the festive departure on Saturday evening. The device is expected to arrive in London around 6:00 am on Sunday. Qantas calls the connection with England the Kangaroo route for seventy years.

There are more than two hundred people on board, including Qantas boss Alan Joyce and sixteen crew members. The Australian Secretary of Tourism, Steve Ciobo, hopes that the connection will make Perth 'a gateway to Australia' and that the direct flight will attract more tourists to its continent. A ticket from Perth to London costs around 1400 euros.

The flight is over a distance of almost 15,000 kilometers. The first time that Qantas flew the route was in 1947 and then the journey from Australia to London lasted four days with nine stopovers. The Kangaroo route is not the only one that bridges such a long distance. For example, Qatar Airways has a direct flight from Qatar to New Zealand that lasts twenty minutes longer.