Direct connection from Rome to Sydney, Qantas will fly to Fiumicino airport
Yesterday Australian carrier Qantas announced its second destination in Europe, to date the only connection is the one that [...]
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Yesterday, the Australian carrier Qantas announced its second destination in Europe, to date the only connection is from Australia to London Heathrow. A flight from Sydney, with a technical stopover in Perth, to the Italian capital will also be operational from June 22, 2022.
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The surprise announcement comes when Australia's borders are still closed for tourists, but hopefully next summer things will be different, Omicron permitting.
When the flight will be operated
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The route will operate 3 times a week from June 22 to October 6, 2022, and is intended to meet demand during the peak European vacation season, according to company management. The flight between Perth and Rome will cover a distance of about 8,300 miles, making it one of Qantas' longest flights and one of the longest in the world.
Qantas' reasoning could point the new way for long-haul travel in the pandemic period, namely to target leisure travelers while waiting for business customers to return. Summer in Italy corresponds to winter on the other side of the world and the low season for direct tourism to the kangaroo nation. On the contrary, with this flight the Australian carrier aims to intercept the traffic of those who want to travel from Australia to Europe, and Italy in particular. It should not be forgotten how there is a large community of Italians on the continent potentially interested in returning home during the hot period for Italy.
We have seen incredible demand on our direct service from Perth to London and our new services to Delhi from Melbourne and Sydney. These are exciting destinations, and there is clear evidence that the pandemic is making nonstop flights between Australia and the rest of the world even more desirable as we learn to live with the virus and its variants," Joyce said.
Italy is the largest market for us in continental Europe for people visiting family and friends from Australia, and we think customers will love flying directly to one of the world's great cities to spend time with loved ones or enjoy Italy. After the restrictions of the past few years, it is an ideal time to reinvigorate our international network and we will continue to look for new opportunities."
These are the statements made by the CEO of Qantas, which points precisely to the demand for direct flights rather than with stopovers as is the case today for those flying to Italy from Australia. Avoiding a connection in Singapore, Dubai or one of the other hubs to take a flight to the Boot will save no less than 3 hours of travel time, but more importantly it will eliminate the stress of a transit in a third country that may have restrictions or special requirements for travelers, as is the case today for stopovers especially in Southeast Asia.
The first two flights will be totally open to reservations with points, which means. Every seat in every cabin will be bookable as an award seat on the inaugural flight to Rome on June 22 and on the first flight out of Rome on June 23. In recent days, we have talked about how Australian serial point accumulators. have spent more than 2 billion points on reservations specifically with Qantas. So after organizing the restart of the A380s with "points planes," the same will be done to celebrate what will to all intents and purposes be the first direct connection between the two nations, with tickets already on sale starting at just over €1,100 round trip.
Unfortunately, the promotion is only open to members of the Qantas loyalty program and there are no ways for us Italians to move points to this program, the only way to use points is to take advantage of the OneWorld alliance and book through British Airways or Cathay Pacific by taking advantage of Membership Rewards points.
In conclusion
We are talking about one of the longest flights in the world and it's really great news for all Italian travelers who will have the opportunity to fly nonstop to Australia aboard Qantas' 787s outfitted in business, premium economy and economy cabins. Of course, that's almost 22 hours of travel in total, including the technical stopover in Perth, but without the stress of having to take a connecting and without having to get off the plane. It must be remembered that there is currently no firm date on the reopening of Australia's borders to nonessential travel, unlike the New Zealand, which has already put down on paper the date of reopening to tourism.