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An Air New Zealand 787-9 Dreamliner in flight. (Image: Air New Zealand)
Will ultra-long-haul go the distance?
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As Qantas gears up for Project Sunrise and reaches further into Europe and the US with its existing fleet, Jake Nelson examines whether ultra-long-haul is the future of international air travel.
Aviation has come a long way since the mid-20th century, when Qantas’ “Kangaroo Route” took several days to fly between Sydney and London. Back then, the Super Constellation service made multiple stops, including Darwin, Singapore, Calcutta, Karachi, Cairo and Tripoli. Today, planes like the Airbus A380 or Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner can make that same trip with just a single layover. But in just a couple of years, that alone will seem outdated, as Qantas launches its ‘Project Sunrise’ plan to fly direct from the NSW capital to London and New York.
As planes get more and more advanced, long-range aircraft such as the A350-900 and A350-1000, as well as potentially Boeing’s forthcoming 777X, are set to enable a new era of ultra-long-haul travel, with passengers flying non-stop between the most far-flung destinations. Both IATA and ICAO share the same definition of “ultra-long-haul”: any flight scheduled to last more than 16 hours. Most of the 10 longest passenger flights in operation today clear this bar, with only Singapore Airlines’ service from its home city to LAX falling below that number – and then only barely.
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says:Obviously there will be a market for U.L.H flights and I believe we are in for a 25% surcharge for that privilege, mostly needed for the loss of actual seat capacity due to the required weight reduction in order to accommodate that flight length. The back of the bus punter just has to be catered for; – if the seat pitch is any less than say 36ins I am convinced that over a short time much adverse comment will be received by the operator and physical/health concerns may well be the result. It is great to have a you beaut new style economy looking seat but will it recline and more importantly will it be upholstered comfortably enough for say 20 + hours? it will have to be good! I am certain that initially the market will be full of novelty, let’s do it customers and the very urgent ones too but one has to question, in the long term, why would you pay 25% more when you can take the one stop, maybe better option and enjoy the delights of SIN, DXB, DOH on the East or say HNL, LAX, YVR on the West? We will see.