Australia-UK: First non-stop flight arrives in London from Perth

The first scheduled non-stop flight between Australia and the UK has touched down in London's Heathrow Airport.

 

Qantas Flight QF9 completed its 14,498km (9,009-mile) journey from Perth in just over 17 hours.

The airline is using the Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner, which is twice as fuel-efficient as the Boeing 747

It is part of ambitious plans by Qantas to add ultra long-haul flights to its schedules.

The Australian flag carrier's Chief Executive, Alan Joyce, has called the new Perth-London service a "game-changing route".

The historic flight, carrying more than 200 passengers and 16 crew, departed from Perth at 18:49 local time on Saturday March 24,2018

Other carriers, including Emirates and United Airlines, have also flown non-stop journeys greater than 14,000km.

In 2017, United Airlines launched a route from Los Angeles to Singapore, offering the longest-distance non-stop flight available from the US.

But Singapore Airlines has provided the world's longest flight, travelling more than 15,300km from Singapore to New York on a direct route that was discontinued in 2013.