Flights straight from Sydney to Rio and New York City in five years
AUSTRALIANS could be flying directly to New York, Rio de Janeiro and Cape Town within five years if Boeing and Airbus can rise to Qantas’s challenge and build an ultra-long haul aircraft that can conquer the huge distances.
Business
Don't miss out on the headlines from Business. Followed categories will be added to My News.
- Qantas non-stop Perth-London flights go on sale from $2270
- Qantas cabin crew reveal the secrets of a long haul flight
AUSTRALIANS could be flying directly to New York, Rio de Janeiro and Cape Town within five years if Boeing and Airbus can rise to Qantas’s challenge and build an ultra-long haul aircraft that can conquer the huge distances.
The national carrier is already about to link Europe and Australia together for the first time with a direct flight from Perth to London on the Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner. But Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce is looking ahead to the next challenge.
He wants to connect the east coast of Australia with direct flights to cities such as London and Paris by 2022.
10 NEW FLIGHT ROUTES TO GET EXCITED ABOUT
“We want to fly direct into New York and Rio de Janeiro in Brazil,” Mr Joyce said.
“We’d also love to be able to fly direct to Cape Town,” he said at Boeing in Seattle.
The Boeing 777X is an ultra-long haul carrier that is currently under development. It can fly the 16,013km from Sydney to New York non-stop. The problem is that currently it cannot take any passengers or cargo.
Mr Joyce said the challenge for Boeing was to develop the aircraft so it can make the trip fully laden.
READ MORE: Qantas flight terror as passenger tries to open main door
“This challenge is feasible and will allow us to get aircraft in the next decade to do something that we have dreamt about, and it will change the game, economically, for Qantas and for Australians,” he said.
Mr Joyce said Boeing’s major competitor, Airbus, also has a potential candidate to do the job — the A350 aircraft.
“The head of Airbus said to me that it’s a bit like the space race, it’s a bit like getting to the moon,” Mr Joyce said.
Before Qantas flights from the east coast of Australia can reach London and New York directly, the national carrier is opening a world first long-haul route from Perth to London using the 787-9 Dreamliner.
Qantas ordered eight of the planes from Boeing two years ago, with the first Dreamliner scheduled to arrive this Friday in Sydney fresh off the production line from Seattle.
The first route flown by the new aircraft will be from Melbourne to Los Angeles, with the 17-hour flight from Perth to London beginning in March 2018.
Perth airport will be upgraded to accommodate the Dreamliners destined for Europe, with Qantas International chief executive Gareth Evans saying the airport will become a hub for the airline.
“We can add additional services to Europe through that hub,” he said.
“Potentially, there could be a Brisbane-Perth-Paris (route), or a Sydney-Perth-Paris (route), hitting those key European locations directly.”
Plane sizes take off!
BOEING’S factory in Seattle is so big the planes inside look like toys and the employees use electric scooters to get around.
The colossal warehouse is the largest building in the world by volume, taking up 40ha of space. The building can swallow up 75 football fields or a whopping 911 basketball courts.
The facility operates 24 hours a day but a majority of the 35,000 employees work during the week when the aircraft production line is in full swing.
Giant pieces of planes are delivered to the assembly plant via huge freight-hauling aircraft from factories all over the planet, with
Seattle being the last stop in the build process.
Planes built at the factor include the wide-body 747, 767, 777, and 787. Each plane moves along the production line at a rate of 2.5cm to 10cm a minute, with a fully assembled plane taking 15 days to complete.
READ MORE: Pilots slam Boeing’s ‘pilotless’ plane trial
Robots deliver the necessary tools and aircraft pieces to the engineers and mechanics, allowing them to dedicate 80 per cent of their time per day to assembly work rather than sorting equipment or finding the right screwdriver.
The building has no central heating or airconditioning. Instead it relies on the one million lights to keep the place warm in winter and the huge roller doors are opened during summer to let in the breeze.
The factory also has 19 giant overhead cranes mounted on 64 kilometres of crane tracks.
Once built the aircraft is hand painted and then vigorously tested by Boeing’s pilots before being handed over to the client.
The factory is currently fulfilling Qantas’ order for eight Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner.