Qantas to run direct flights from Sydney to Rome via Perth in 2022

Qantas will slice three hours off the usual flight to Italy with a new direct service from Sydney to Rome from mid-2022.

The new direct flights into Rome will cut three hours off the usual flight time.

Qantas will launch the only direct flight from Australia to continental Europe when the airline begins services from Sydney to Rome via Perth in mid-2022.

The flight will cut more than three hours off the current fastest travel time to the Eternal City, taking 16 hours and 25 minutes.

Fares will go on sale from Wednesday for $1785 return with three services a week in each direction on Boeing 787-9s.

Qantas Group CEO Alan Joyce said strong travel demand since borders reopened in November, had given the flying kangaroo confidence to explore new destinations.

“We’ve seen amazing demand on our direct service from Perth to London and on our new services to Delhi from Melbourne and Sydney,” Mr Joyce said.

Italy is the largest market for Qantas in continental Europe for people visiting family and friends from Australia Qantas says.

“These are exciting destinations and there’s strong evidence the pandemic is making non-stop flights between Australia and the rest of world even more desirable as we learn to live with the virus and its variants.”

He said Italy was the largest market for Qantas in continental Europe for people visiting family and friends from Australia and he was confident the new direct flights would be popular.

“After the restrictions of the past few years, it’s the ideal time to reinvigorate our international network and we’ll continue to look for new opportunities,” said Mr Joyce.

The new route was also expected to boost tourism to Western Australia and promote Perth as an ideal stopover for Australians travelling to Europe from the east coast.

“Australia’s global reputation as a friendly, safe and unique destination is already an enormous tourism drawcard and adding Rome to the Qantas network means visitors will experience the Spirit of Australia before they even arrive,” Mr Joyce said.

Qantas recently started new flights from Sydney and Melbourne to Delhi and re-started a number of existing routes from Sydney and Melbourne to destinations including Los Angeles, London and Singapore.

In addition to the sale fares, Qantas will make two full planes available for purchase using frequent flyer points on the inaugural flights on June 22 (outbound to Rome) and June 23 (inbound to Sydney).

At this stage, Qantas will operate the route between June 22 and October 6.

Connections will be available on codeshare airlines to 16 destinations in Europe including Athens, Barcelona, Frankfurt, Nice, Madrid and Paris and 15 destinations within Italy including Milan and Venice.