Qantas’ Sydney to London via Darwin route takes off on Monday

International commercial flights through Darwin returned on Monday night, with the historic Sydney to London via the NT taking off.

INTERNATIONAL commercial flights through Darwin returned on Monday night with official speeches, bubbly and cake marking the historic arrival at Darwin International Airport at noon.

But jetsetting passengers on board the flight to London missed the celebrations.

It was another six hours before the plane left the tarmac in Sydney on its historic flight into Darwin.

Up to 15 passengers and 15 crew were expected to board the flight when it landed in Darwin on Monday evening.

The flight out came after the first commercial international Qantas flight into Australia landed in Sydney from Los Angeles as international borders reopened to fully vaccinated passengers.

With the first flight not scheduled to leave Sydney Airport until 6.30pm and to land in Darwin about 11pm, Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce beamed a virtual speech into Darwin Airport attended by Administrator Vicki O’Halloran, Tourism Minister Natasha Fyles, airport acting chief executive Tom Ganley and Tourism NT chairman Michael Bridge.

Fiona Robertson and Bruce Robertson with their daughter Elle Robertson at the International Terminal at Sydney Airport to as Elle prepares to depart on the first flight out to London with Qantas since Covid restrictions have lifted in Sydney. Picture: NCA Newswire / Gaye Gerard

It was the first commercial international Qantas flight into Darwin since March last year and the first of at least five Darwin-London flights a week until April.

Darwin was chosen as the stopover destination for London flights after the WA government declined to reopen international borders.

Mr Joyce acknowledged the speed the Territory government and Darwin International Airport acted to fill Perth’s void.

“It’s been great since the pandemic started to have Darwin active as our gateway to get Australians back into the country. We’ve done a couple of hundred flights into Darwin,” he said. “We hope to repay that support by bringing international tourists to the NT for a stopover when the time is right.”

The airport has been changed since the enforced Covid-19 shutdown, with new bio-secure departure facilities for international flights, roadworks and a new Qantas lounge for international passengers.

Mr Ganley welcomed the extra activity after a long lay-off. “The flight is 17 hours and there’s a huge uplift of fuel to be taken on here; the crew gets on and off here and it just makes our operations more sustainable while the terminal is operating 24 hours,” he said.

“So it’s really just getting us back up and running.

“The more flights we have here, because of our geographic positioning here, really enables us to get more of those international flights until we get back to a pre-Covid world.”

Two cakes paid tribute to the old kangaroo-hop between Darwin and London that Qantas launched in 1947. It included 27 stops and took four days to complete.

Originally published as Qantas’ Sydney to London via Darwin route takes off on Monday