On a stage at the Airbus headquarters in Toulouse, the chief executive of Australian airline Qantas declares: “The tyranny of distance has finally been conquered”.
Vanessa Hudson was in the French city last week to announce the world’s first 20-plus hour flight route.
The airline first flew what it named the Kangaroo route between London and Sydney in 1947. At the time, it was an odyssey spanning seven stops and four days.
Those stops have been gradually reduced, with Qantas now stopping only once, in Singapore, on the way through.
But 80 years after that 1940s venture, the first non-stop flight between the two cities is set to take off from October 2027.
Using specially designed ultra-long-haul Airbus planes, Qantas expects to shave about four hours off the current journey time. It is expected to last around 22 hours.
The much anticipated – and delayed – breakthrough comes after a turbulent few years in the airline’s history, and bosses are banking on customers embracing the premium but marathon flight.
“We feel really confident that this is going to be a success,” Hudson tells the BBC.
Some analysts say it is a major milestone in aviation history. But is it really what people want?
