Qantas expects to announce non-stop Perth to London flights soon

Australia’s first direct flight to Europe could be as soon as a few weeks away as negotiations draw to a close.

Qantas unveils the new livery for its fleet. Picture: Chris Pavlich

Australia’s first direct flight to ­Europe could be weeks away from being announced after Qantas chief Alan Joyce said negotiations for its Perth to London service were drawing to a close.

Mr Joyce fronted a crowd of close to a thousand people at Sydney airport yesterday as the airline unveiled its seat configuration for its new fleet of Dreamliner 787-9s and a secret brand revamp that will see a new, streamlined Flying Kangaroo adorn its aircraft.

Speaking on the sidelines of the event, Mr Joyce said the airline’s 236-seat configured Dreamliners would be capable of flying all of the ultra long-haul routes it had on its wishlist, including the first direct flight to Europe.

“This aircraft allows us to fly routes that we could only imagine in the past,” Mr Joyce said. “It ­allows us to fly from Perth to London, from Sydney to Chicago or Melbourne to Dallas.

“As a consequence of that, we wanted to make sure the Dreamliner was the most comfortable aircraft in the air.

“We’ve redesigned the economy class to give you more space on this aircraft that you have on any Qantas ­aircraft. In fact this overall has more space than any aircraft in our fleet.”

Mr Joyce said negotiations with Perth airport, the West Australian government and the commonwealth for the launch of the new service were continuing but a conclusion on what he described as a “game-changer” was fast ­approaching.

“We are still in the midst of discussions and there is always to-ing and fro-ing on commercial discussions, but it’s such a great opportunity for Western Australia it would be a shame if we couldn’t close a deal,” he said.

“It’s so game-changing ­because Australia has never been connected with Europe with a regular passenger service.”

Mr Joyce said economy customers on Qantas’s new Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners — the first of which will be delivered in October next year — would get an extra precious inch of leg room compared with seats on its Airbus A380 ­superjumbos.

The 166 economy seats will come in a 3:3:3 configuration with each seat having a pitch of 32 inches (81cm, compared with 31 inches on the A380), a width of 17.2 inches and ­six-inch seat recline.

The seat will also feature a new personal device holder and USB ports; more storage areas, a seat-back mood light designed to ­minimise disturbance for other passengers, and a 12-inch high-definition ­entertainment touchscreen.

Laid out in a 1:2:1 configuration, each business class seat will come with direct aisle access and a fully-flat bed stretching to 80 inches.

The business class seat, which will have a width of 24 inches, will come with a 16-inch touchscreen, a new deployable privacy divider and a reclined position from takeoff to landing.

But despite the extra leg room, Qantas missed the opportunity to buck the industry trend of squeezing in nine seats across a single aisle and put in eight, as was the ­design intent from Boeing.

But Mr Joyce said the configuration would make its Dreamliners the roomiest of all its aircraft and it wasn’t cramming in as many seats as other airlines were.

“We’ve redesigned the economy class to give you more space on this aircraft than you have on any Qantas aircraft,” he said.

“A lot of airlines have over 300 seats on this aircraft. Some of the low cost airlines have 375 seats on this aircraft.

“It shows you that we are designing it with comfort in mind for long haul flights.”