Qantas breaks records on Perth-London flight
Mascot, NSW : Qantas has once again set a new speed record for the Perth to London QF9 Boeing 787-9 non-stop flight, slashing almost an hour off the scheduled flight time.
The new record time was set on July 20 and was just 16 hours 23 minutes instead of the scheduled 17 hours 20 minutes. It was 10 minutes quicker than the previous speed record.
The non-stop flight to London, launched in March, is now consistently at least 45 minutes better than scheduled.
The times have gradually been getting better as the strong northern winter winds have given way to a lighter summer pattern.
The inbound QF10 from London to Perth is also setting record times of 15.45 minutes, also stripping an hour off the published time.
The average speed for the QF10 journey is about 936km/h with ground speeds topping out at over 1120km/h. The typical cruise speed for a 787 is 900km/h.
According to Flightradar24 the Qantas Perth to London and return service is now consistently beating the published schedule in both directions.
It has announced new routes including Melbourne to San Francisco, Brisbane-LA-New York and Sydney/Melbourne, Brisbane to Hong Kong and Sydney to Chicago.
According to travel agents, the Perth to London nonstop is proving popular and it is difficult to get premium seats.
