Qantas launches flight from Sydney to Rome for 2022
Despite the Omicron variant disrupting plans around the world for travel, one Australian airline has announced a new route to Europe.
Start brushing up on your Italian, because Australian airline Qantas has announced you’ll be able to fly direct to Rome from next year.
From the end of June 2022, and to catch the best time of the year to visit Europe, Qantas will operate the only direct service between Australia and Italy.
The route will operate via Perth three times each week, using the airline’s Boeing 787 from June 22 to October 6, 2022.
This will be the only direct service between Australia and continental Europe.
Until now, the only destination served by Qantas in Europe was London, via Darwin. According to the airline, the new flight will cut more than three hours off the current fastest travel time to Rome.
The airline’s CEO Alan Joyce said the new route supplements the growing demand for overseas travel since borders reopened on November 1, however the announcement falls at a time when the Omicron variant is taking hold around the world.
In NSW, 1360 cases were reported overnight while Victoria recorded another surge with more than 1400 cases recorded on Wednesday.
“We’ve seen amazing demand on our direct service from Perth to London and on our new services to Delhi from Melbourne and Sydney,” Mr Joyce said in a statement.
“These are exciting destinations and there’s strong evidence the pandemic is making non-stop flights between Australia and the rest of world even more desirable as we learn to live with the virus and its variants.
“Italy is the largest market for us in continental Europe for people visiting family and friends from Australia and we think customers will love flying direct to one of the world’s great cities to spend time with loved ones or enjoy Italy.
“After the restrictions of the past few years, it’s the ideal time to reinvigorate our international network and we’ll continue to look for new opportunities.”
The announcement comes as the airline recently started new flights from Sydney and Melbourne to Delhi after more than a decade.
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