Pending arrangements with Perth airport, it’s looking like Paris could benefit from Qantas’ steady plan to roll out non-stop flights from Australia to Europe. The Flying Kangaroo has already got Italy on sight thanks to the currently running three-times-weekly (and seasonal) Perth to Rome service, so it wasn’t much of a surprise when Qantas Group CEO Alana Joyce confirmed the airline was currently in talks with Air France to make such a thing happen.
“We’d love to be able to do more,” said Joyce on Perth radio station 6PR when asked about Qantas’ non-stop routes to Continental Europe.
“We want to do Paris and we’re talking to Air France and other European airlines about how we could do that.”
Daily direct flights to London and seasonal flights to Rome already position Perth Airport as an important international hub for Qantas and likely where much of Australia’s biggest overseas services will be located over the next few years.
However, this also means that Perth Airport will have to undergo some substantial infrastructural changes if it wanted to make more of these big Qantas routes possible. Joyce has already stated that plans will remain up in the air (no pun intended) until Qantas can reach an agreement with Perth Airport to move to its expanded Airport Central international terminal precinct. And such a discussion would take years of planning.
“When we last did Paris it was Singapore to Paris and it was a three a week, and it was hard to make economically work,” continued Joyce.
“Germany is still a big market for us and it’s been hard for us in the past when we were flying through a hub, so the opportunity there is actually quite real,” he added as he stoked rumours about Berlin or Frankfurt being next on the cards.
If we do see a Perth-Paris non-stop service then it will likely be onboard Qantas’ ultra-long range Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner considering the three of the modern aircraft will be delivered to the airline in June.
