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Qantas has officially launched its non-stop service from Perth to Paris, the first time the Flying Kangaroo has flown to the French capital in 20 years.
The QF33/34 service to Paris will initially operate four times per week return – dropping to three from mid-August – using Qantas’ 787-9 Dreamliners, with the inaugural 17-hour 20-minute flight departing Perth aboard VH-ZNB at 2:41pm on Friday, 12 July.
The route will add 75,000 seats per year between Australia and Europe and comes ahead of the opening of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games on 26 July.
“There is a lot of excitement amongst our customers and crew that Qantas is returning to Paris and that it’s a non-stop flight between Perth and Paris,” said Qantas CEO Vanessa Hudson.
“In recent years we have seen a significant increase in customers wanting to fly direct on long haul routes and avoiding stop overs wherever possible. Our direct flights from Perth to London and Rome have some of the highest customer satisfaction on our international network.
“With these new flights, our customers can depart Perth in the evening and arrive in Paris in time to enjoy brunch overlooking the Eiffel Tower.”
Paris is now one of 20 international destinations with direct links to WA, according to the state’s tourism minister Rita Saffioti, who says these services are an important part of the state government’s tourism strategy.
“We know that people are more likely to travel to places they’re able to easily access, so this is another big win for tourism in Western Australia,” Minister Saffioti said.
“With seamless connections from Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and other major cities, Perth will be the gateway to Paris for Australia. For French tourists coming to explore the natural wonders around of Australia, Qantas has connections to more than 60 destinations across the country.”
QF33/34 notably avoids flying over Iran after Qantas rerouted its Perth–London flights in April due to fears Iran and Israel could come to blows. Instead, it takes a route through Iraqi and Turkish airspace, the same taken by QF9/10 Perth-London services since the end of April.
QF9 was temporarily replaced by QF209, a service travelling from Perth to London via Singapore, between 12 and 28 April, while QF10 continued to operate non-stop from London to Perth through Egyptian, Jordanian and Saudi airspace.
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says:Quite a number of years ago, Qantas announced that with the addition of the Boeing 787 to its fleet they were going to launch services from Perth to Berlin via Athens. That service never eventuated, yet Singapore Airlines immediately cottoned onto how successful that route might be, but putting its low cost international service using the Boeing 787 aircraft on that flight from Melbourne (with its massive Greek population) having the benefit of low fees on SCOOT travelling to Athens via Singapore and for many passengers onward to Berlin. We have multiple friends flying both from Melbourne and the Gold Cost that have found that service to Athens and Berlin to be a fantastic option. Come Hants wake up and lets see that service started, perhaps even with a Perth to Athens and onto Frankfurt service alternating with Berlin. Its about time Hants lives up to its promises!