In it for the long haul

Just how far will Qantas go?

There’s a nice symmetry that in the issue we explore Qantas’s “game-changing” announcement it will fly nonstop from Perth to London with the Boeing 787-9 from March 2018 that we also look at how its very first Boeing 747-400, which on its delivery flight to Australia in August 1989 flew from London to Sydney nonstop, is now preserved for prosterity, on display with HARS near Wollongong.

Qantas has always prided itself on its heritage of pioneering and operating long-haul flights. The 747‑400 heralded a new era of long-haul flying for Qantas, from one-stop flights to London via Asia to regular nonstop flights across the Pacific, including pioneering Sydney-Dallas/Fort Worth nonstop.