On the first Qantas non-stop flight from Perth to Paris
I was a passenger on QF33’s inaugural outing from WA to the French capital. Here’s what it was like to fly for 17 hours.
The first flight of QF33 from Perth to Paris aboard Qantas’s latest non-stop international route was celebrated with joie-de-vivre at the WA capital’s airport, with an armada of Australian flags and bunting, plus official endorsements by Qantas Group chief executive Vanessa Hudson and Tourism WA officials.
There were tiny boxes of raspberry and vanilla macarons handed about, mimicking Qantas logo colours, and our official Olympics team mascot, BK the boxing kangaroo.
“We’ll be mostly flying over water,” announced Captain Phillip Paterson as the lights were dimmed just after dinner for this pioneering journey into night and beyond.
It was a timely reminder of our continent’s relative isolation and the vastness we’ll cover before reaching Europe.
Here’s what it was like on board.
The aircraft
The long and lean Boeing 787 Dreamliner is an ideal choice for these intercontinental services, with larger windows featuring electronically adjustable day and night light levels, higher cabin humidity and better air quality, greater fuel efficiency and fewer seats.
The Dreamliner can accommodate just 236 passengers across three classes, with 42 lie-flat business seat “suites” in two cabins divided by galley and bulkheads, 28 premium economy and 166 economy.
In business class
My 6F business class seat is one of a pair in the middle bank, both with aisle access and a divider screen between, easily lowered for couples travelling together.
The windowside seats are better options if travelling alone and those with the storage and dividers on the aisle offer more snugness and privacy. Check the airline’s online seat map to book those more private options well in advance.
The passenger next to me in 6E is tucked away while I am in direct sight of passing flight attendants and passengers and there are occasional disturbances.
These configurations, conceived for Qantas by its long-time collaborator, industrial designer David Caon, will be familiar to regular Qantas long and medium-haul business class passengers.
On the menu
Dinner is served reasonably soon after takeoff to enable our body clocks to adapt to the nocturnal time cycle.
Menus on this route by Neil Perry, Qantas creative director of food, beverage and service, nod gently to French cuisine, with the likes of confit duck, vol au vent, coq au vin and bouillabaisse.
There are four entrees and mains, three cheese varieties and a surprisingly uninspiring dessert offering of an ice cream sandwich or fruit, plus the French touch of rum savarin with chantilly cream and strawberries, but it’s oddly dry and I don’t get past one bite.
It’s not a memorable meal but service is uniformly thoughtful, and snacks and drinks are available on request, including crudites with wattleseed and beetroot dip, Persian feta and crunchy greens, and spicy guacamole with rice grain crackers.
Toasted BLTs are also a popular mid-flight choice as are potato crisps, chocolate bars and biscuits.
Onboard entertainment
Such indulgence feels a bit like late-night furtive boarding school munchies in bed but with the clear advantage of watching a broad entertainment selection, including umpteen HBO and Paramount+ boxed sets.
New French content includes the likes of Amelie, Midnight in Paris, and Marie Antoinette, while the flight path channel tracing the plane’s position in real time is oddly mesmerising.
I note that, like me, passengers in my vicinity are watching their screens or reading long into the flight, getting ready for sleep about six hours after takeoff, allowing for the eventual early morning French time adjustment.
I don’t bother with a full breakfast from the Perry list of continental and hot selections. An espresso and croissant, s’il vous plait.
Bedding down for the night
In business class, a padded mattress is provided to fit over the seat, plus a duvet-style blanket and a square, properly soft pillow.
There are various recline positions but when the seat is fully lowered for a lie-flat sleep, there is a slight tendency to slip about, even with the seatbelt fully fastened, and the surface is a bit too hard to get absolutely comfortable, but that’s a subjective observation given my preferred mattress is soft.
The personal reading lighting, which can be intuitively adjusted, is a bonus, plus there’s bottled water in the seatside storage unit and a well-placed headphones hook.
The commemorative French navy PJs by Paris-based Australian designer Martin Grant are vechic, echoing the tricolore flag with red and white detailing.
Amenity packs are similarly detailed and stocked with skincare products by Qantas’s preferred Australian botanical brand Li’Tya.
On arrival
Just under 17 hours and 14,264km later, a kangaroo character in a blue and white Breton-striped top and a slightly goofy-looking giant quokka greet the Perth to Paris maiden service at Charles de Gaulle Airport.
Arriving into Paris at 6.30am means it’s croissant o’clock in the Olympic city.
That quokka creature is a weird wake-up call but talking to fellow passengers, the flight verdict proves to be overwhelmingly positive.
Who need stopovers with probable delays and long queues at a succession of airports, is the most common retort.
Seventeen hours in the air? Not a picnic but a very civilised and time-efficient way to cross continents.
On the downside
The Olympics torch relay is underway, involving barricades and closed streets galore and several hours of delays getting into the traffic-clogged city.
France’s sports minister Daniel Foubert has popped into the murky Seine for a dip to prove it’s “safe” and Pierre, my driver, wants to know how much it costs to fly to Perth.
He is yearning for a holiday with kangaroos and long beaches and wants to see a real quokka. Mission accomplished.
In it for the long haul
This is the third Qantas direct route to connect Perth with European capitals. Perth to London was inaugurated in March 2018 and I was aboard with a gaggle of politicians. The Boeing 787 Dreamliner flew 17 hours and 32 minutes through umpteen time zones as aircraft buffs across the world tracked us on flight path apps.
In mid-2022, Qantas Perth to Rome direct services were launched. The 16-hour flight time shaved at least three hours off any equivalent service and the route has proved a popular conduit for family reunions between WA’s Italian community and relatives back in the “old country”.
Flight frequency
Qantas Perth to Paris return services will operate four days a week during the peak northern summer, then thrice-weekly from August.
According to Flightradar24.com, four Qantas direct services – from Perth to London, Perth to Paris, Melbourne to Dallas-Fort Worth and Sydney to Dallas Fort Worth – rank among the world’s top 10 longest direct flights.
Susan Kurosawa was a guest of Qantas.
