Can you enjoy a 17-hour flight? Qantas boasts success of Perth to London route

A year after its maiden flight, Qantas says the non-stop Perth to London route has its “highest level of customer satisfaction”.

On Qantas’s longest flight, being in business class helps. Cabin crew on last year’s first non-stop flight from Perth to London. Pic: Colin Murty

Qantas is marking the one-year anniversary of its history-making Perth-London service with a swath of statistics highlighting the success of the route.

Boasting an average load factor of 94 per cent, the service operated by a Qantas 787-9 Dreamliner has already carried 155,000 passengers, 59 per cent of them Australian.

Despite having an official flight time of just over 17 hours, pilots have made the trip from Perth to London in as little as 16 hours and 19 minutes, and 15 hours and 15 minutes on the return journey.

To date, cabin crews have served more than 450,000 meals and over 42,000 Tim Tams, and poured 367,000 glasses of white, red and sparkling wine.

The most popular movie on the route is Mission Impossible: Fallout, and curiously, the seat that has watched the most entertainment is 56F - averaging 9.13 hours a flight.

Qantas Group chief executive officer Alan Joyce said there were a lot of expectations around the flight both within Qantas and the broader community and “frankly it has exceeded them”.

“A year of operating this route shows that a hub in Western Australia connecting Australia to the world, works really well,” Mr Joyce said.

“We have people coming from the east coast to join the flight and it’s made it a lot easier for people in Europe to visit Australia.

“Almost every flight is full, and it turned a profit almost immediately, which is rare for new services because they have start-up costs and it normally takes time to build demand.”

Mr Joyce said it was clear the work Qantas put into managing passenger jet lag and designing a comfortable cabin had paid off.

“It’s the longest flight in our entire network but it has the highest level of customer satisfaction,” said Mr Joyce.

There had also been significant economic benefits for Perth, with travellers stopping over in the city.

A Deloitte Economics report found the service had delivered $101 million in visitor expenditure, and global media coverage for Perth and Western Australia had provided more than $100 million worth of exposure.

Mr Joyce said the support from WA had been “amazing”.

“It’s come from all quarters, from the state government right through to individuals using the service,” he said.

“We’re really pleased to be returning the favour in the form of more tourism dollars, more exposure for WA as a great place to visit and the opportunity to turn Perth into a hub between Australia and more parts of Europe.”