Qantas CEO Joyce hints at new non-stop Dreamliner flights to US

Qantas says it will unveil a new route to the US from Brisbane that uses the Boeing Dreamliner.

A new Qantas 787-9 Dreamliner on the tarmac in Seattle.

Qantas says it will unveil a new route to the US from Brisbane that uses the Boeing Dreamliner after unveiling its “game-changing” new aircraft type yesterday.

Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce said new routes were “on the drawing board” after revealing that he had selected the name “Great Southern Land” for the 787-9 Dreamliner following some 45,000 suggestions from the public.

So far, Qantas has said it will use the Dreamliner to fly Melbourne to Los Angeles and non-stop Perth to London using the first tranche of the 787s that will be based in Melbourne.

The airline has indicated it will fly between Brisbane and Los Angeles, then onward to New York using a 787, but has yet to confirm the routes for all four of the second tranche of Dreamliners, which will be based in Brisbane.

At the Boeing base in Seattle this week, Qantas suggested there will be a new US route and that the Dreamliner could open up possibilities including Brisbane to Chicago. “Either later on this year or early next year we’ll make the announcement about what that new route in the States is,” Mr Joyce said.

He said the Dreamliner flight between Brisbane and New York via Los Angeles would replace an existing Brisbane-LA route flown by the Boeing 747.

“Then we will announce a new route. We have a bit of negotiation to do with the airports. And we have a bit of negotiation to do with our partner airlines because we need to code-share and provide connectivity and we have to source things like lounges. When we bed all that down, then we’ll be able to announce it.”

By the end of 2018, Qantas will have taken delivery of eight Dreamliners, which will allow the retirement of five of the carrier’s 747s (the plane known as the “queen of the skies”).

Qantas is pitching the Dreamliner as offering “new levels of comfort” for passengers, such as large windows, technologies that ease the impact of turbulence, improved air quality, more locker space and quieter cabins. The new aircraft type — which will have economy, premium economy and business class cabins — is being touted as having “next generation seating”.

Australian industrial designer David Caon, who shaped the interiors of the aircraft and the seating, told The Australian that the seat in the premium economy cabin meant that passengers could “end up sitting in this zero-G position”.

Mr Joyce said the carrier had been working with sleep specialists and other scientists at the University of Sydney to see how the in-flight service could be tweaked to help people adjust to new time zones.

Annabel Hepworth is visiting Seattle as a guest of Qantas and Boeing