Premium to boost profit on Qantas New York-Sydney route

Qantas boss Alan Joyce expects strong demand from non-stop NY-Sydney flights.

The crew will wear brain activity monitors throughout the flight back to Australia. Picture: Supplied

Qantas Group CEO Alan Joyce has revealed he expects non-stop flights between New York and Sydney to be “really profitable” because of the premium the airline can charge on the route.

Speaking ahead of the historic Project Sunrise test flight Saturday morning (Australian time), Mr Joyce told Bloomberg he expected “massive” demand for the service based on the response to Qantas’s Perth-London flights.

“Perth-London is a 17-hour flight and we have a 95 per cent seat factor on that service, whereas typically for long-haul travel it’s 75 to 80 per cent,” said Mr Joyce.

“People are paying a significant premium in business class of over 1000 pounds ($1885) out of the UK to fly in that service.”

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He said Qantas did not currently have an aircraft that could reach New York in a single flight, so it had a daily flight that landed in Los Angeles and then flew on to JFK Airport.

“We fill it every day so we know there’s a demand there and we think there’ll be a premium for it and we think it could be really profitable for the business,” Mr Joyce said.

“But we still have a number of hurdles to get over before we approve the business case.”

Flight QF7879 will depart New York at 9pm Friday and is due to land in Sydney at 7.10am on Sunday.

Flight QF7879 will depart New York at 9pm Friday, which is midday Australian eastern daylight time on Saturday.

It is due to land in Sydney at 7.10am on Sunday after travelling more than 16,000km in a flight time of just over 19 hours.

Mr Joyce said the moment the new Boeing 787-9 leaves New York, the time will be set to Sydney with bright lighting.

Bright lights and a bit of spice

“The food will have spices and herbs to keep people awake, and when it’s time to sleep, there’ll be carbohydrates and creamy food to put you to sleep and the light gets darker,” he said.

The in-flight service was devised with the help of research undertaken by the University of Sydney’s Charles Perkins Centre.

The four pilots on board the flight will have had 55-hours on the ground in New York, when QF7879 takes off on Saturday.

The Australian understands the crew departed Brisbane on Wednesday, operating flight QF15 to Los Angeles, and then staying on board as passengers to JFK.

They will wear brain activity monitors throughout the flight back to Australia, to help researchers devise optimum work-rest schedules over the long trip.

Pilots are yet to reach a new workplace agreement with Qantas to operate the ultra-long haul flights, which Mr Joyce hopes to add to the network by 2023.