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Qantas to operate Centenary of ANZAC flight to Turkey

written by australianaviation.com.au | January 5, 2015

A Qantas 747 will operate the special QF100 service to Turkey. (Brenden Scott)
A Qantas 747 will operate the special QF100 service to Turkey. (Brenden Scott)

Qantas has announced it will operate a special direct flight to Istanbul, Turkey, to coincide with the Centenary of ANZAC commerations in April.

The flight, which will carry the special QF100 flight number, will be operated by a 364-seat Boeing 747-400, and will depart from Sydney to Perth and then nonstop to Istanbul’s Sabiha Göeçken international airport, on April 21. The return flight, again carrying the QF100 flight number, will depart for Perth and Sydney on April 28.

Passengers will be able to join the flight, which Qantas says remains subject to regulatory approval, in either Sydney or Perth.

The one-off flight is also believed to be the first non-stop Qantas RPT service between Australia and Europe, albeit that Sabiha Göeçken, Istanbul’s second major airport, is situated on the Asian side of the Bosphorus Strait.

 

Flight

Route

Date

Depart

Arrive

QF100

Sydney – Perth

21st April 2015

2130

0030 (22nd April)

QF100

Perth –  Sabiha Göeçken

22nd April 2015

0230

1230

Flight

Route

Date

Depart

Arrive

QF100

Sabiha Göeçken – Perth

28th 2015

1400

0920 (29th April)

QF100

Perth – Sydney

29th April 2015

1100

1715

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Comments (13)

  • Michael

    says:

    Very interesting. I wonder if this is causing a few people at Qantas to run the numbers on doing direct flights between Perth and various European cities with the 787-9?

  • Harvey John

    says:

    I really, really, really, really hope that Qantas International will start flying there planes out of Perth again.
    It is incredible that you cannot fly to Europe, Singapore, Hong Kong on a Qantas plane anymore.
    They must rectify this.
    I and my wife do not at all like Emirates to fly on.
    It is as if Qantas are pushing you to go elsewhere!

  • Brett

    says:

    If QF100 is normally LAX-MEL, what will happen with that flight?

  • Alex T

    says:

    @Brett I do believe QF101/100 is a seasonal service which is/was operating between the dates of 17th-21stDEC14 and 02nd-18thJAN15,

  • Riplander

    says:

    @Michael

    How can an airline run numbers of one flight? This is a charter flight for a special commemoration and there is no evidence of Qantas currently pursuing European destinations out of Perth or any other city at this time.

  • Michael

    says:

    Riplander it is not so much running numbers on this one flight. Qantas are going to run a service direct from Perth to the eastern edge of Europe using old 744s.. Qantas currently have 50 options on 787.-9, a smaller, more efficient and long range aircraft.

    Unless they are going to continue with cutbacks until they cut themselves back into oblivion would they not have people in head office figuring out what routes they could run with these new aircraft. That’s if they can afford them by then to try to win back International customers and grow the business again. Would direct routes from Perth to Europe not be at least a distant consideration?

  • Emrah

    says:

    Can you please type the airport name correctly? It is Sabiha Gökçen, not Görçken. This is the name of the world’s first woman combat pilot and she deserves a correct spelling. Thanks!

  • Ben

    says:

    RPT? Sounds like an open charter to me.

  • Riplander

    says:

    @Michael

    I think QF would rather get solid market share in Asia from Perth before looking else. It doesn’t make sense for Perth to be a European gateway when the majority of consumers from Europe to Australia travel to the east coast.

  • Michael

    says:

    Riplander I think you are right. The only destination in Europe where it would come close to making sense is London but that is probably too long a route to be viable especially with diversionary fuel requirements on the journey back to Perth. London is also slot constrained.

    My first ever flight was on a BA 744 from PER to LHR with a fuel stop and some transfers in Singapore. It may seem as simple as eliminating the fuel stop with longer range and more efficient aircraft but the rise of the Middle East carriers has put a stop to that for now.

    The idea has been raised before. I think it was either Richard Branson or someone in Virgin but nothing came of that.

  • Gerard M

    says:

    Will the B744 return to Australia for (use) the period between the return trip or will it stay in Turkey?

  • Riplander

    says:

    @ Michael

    I agree. The connectivity of the gulf carriers from Asia Pacific to Europe has provided them with a geographical advantage that carriers in other parts of the world simply cannot not compete with. It makes more sense for QF to offer its partnership with Emirates who fly to a myriad of European destinations from one stop rather than trying to offer flights to a few destinations in mainland Europe which is not guaranteed to procure good load factors. (E.g. Frankfurt). This is evident as only one European carrier (British Airways) offers flight to Australia while all the others pulled out.

  • Tom

    says:

    Thanks Emrah for correcting Sabiha Gökçen. How hard can it be for a journo to check the spelling of an airport mentioned twice in a 5 sentence article?
    This Qantas flight has all the smell of a government charter for VIPs, military etc with the back of the aircraft being sold to defray costs.
    Anyone thinking of booking the flight to Sabiha Gökçen should be aware that the 1230 arrival could mean up to an 8 hour road trip to the Gallipoli area (and a very expensive private transfer) area if traffic is heavy across the Bosphorus bridge!

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