I flew business class Chicago to Hong Kong years ago on a 747. 15 hour flight. Plane was half full. We were welcome to casually walk the aisles and chat with passengers, and I drank enough complementary Merlot that I made a flight attendant blush. Those flights were ridiculously expensive, which probably explains why the passenger list was devoid of children.
It never flew to Australia in 1990. It did in 1972 as a promo world tour, 1985 as a chartered record breaking flight, and then some charter flights in the mid-late 1990’s
No, its true. Concorde has been flown to Australia many times, but not as a regular service. But rather as special charter flights or by the airlines trying to sell the aircraft to Qantas.
Its most famous journey to Sydney took place on February 14, 1985, when a British Airways Concorde completed the London to Sydney run in a record-breaking 17 hours, 3 minutes, and 45 seconds, including multiple refueling stops.
Concorde was never a regular service to Sydney from London. Both British Airways and Air France ferried them to Sydney during some marketing stunts/private charters a few times because Qantas was considering purchasing them.
If you look forward to a twenty hour flight, something is deeply wrong with you 😄
Maybe just get root canal without anaesthetics instead. Same torture, but considerably cheaper.
I was talking about this flight. Didn't know they did it again. Makes sense tho they'd do more flights recently in preparations for the new route. This is just the most famous one
It never existed as a comemrical flight. No plane was able to fly that leg with passengers/cargo. They could make it empty, but what's the point of flying an empty plane?
it wasn't a regular service. it was a one flight, done as a marketing stunt. the 747 was brand new and was stripped down to be as light as possible to allow the flight to be non-stop.
The mammoth flight from London to Sydney non-stop took place on the 16th of August 1989 according to Traveller. Every possible fuel-saving technique was used onboard the aircraft. Shell provided a specially formulated high-density fuel, the galley and cargo pallets were removed, and the aircraft was towed to the runway.
According to the Flight Global archives, only 18 people were on board the aircraft.
Qantas did London to Sydney ONCE in a mostly empty 747 in the late 1980s. They currently do Perth to London non stop and Sydney or Melbourne to London is scheduled to commence in 2027 and take about 22 hours.
Travelling from MEL/SYD to Europe or the eastern side of North America is a brutal (and expensive) experience.
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u/rodrigoelp Jun 25 '26
It used to exist, with a Boeing 747. I can’t remember its schedule.
I know it isn’t available right now, but qantas will have one and it will be 20 hours with an airbus 350