Image Credit:Qantas Australian Qantas airways began operating non-stop flights between Sydney and Dallas/Fort Worth-world's long...
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Image Credit:Qantas
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Australian Qantas airways began operating non-stop flights between Sydney and Dallas/Fort Worth-world's longest route, with its Airbus A380 double decker fleet on 29 September.
The 16 hour flight covering 13,804-km, is now the longest route served in a single stretch with the largest airplane. The previous longest-range A380 route was the Dubai-Los Angeles operated by Emirates, which had a trip length of 13,420 km.
Qantas will operate the A380 service six times per week (except Tuesdays). The A380 replaces the Boeing 747 operated by Qantas in the same route, which required a stopover in Brisbane on the return flight because of headwinds.
The flight QF7 will depart Sydney at 1310 and arrive at DFW International Airport at 1345 local time (the same day). The return service QF8, will depart DFW at 2215 local time and arrive in Sydney at 0605 two days later (due to an evening departure and the international dateline).
Flying time from Sydney to DFW is around 14 hours 50 minutes, and flying time from DFW to Sydney is around 15 hours 30 minutes.
This new service comes in the 60th anniversary year of Qantas services between Australia and the US. In 1954, Qantas operated a Super Constellation from Sydney to San Francisco – its first trans-Pacific route to North America.
The aircraft is configured in a three-class cabin layout accommodating 14 first class seats, 64 in business, 35 in premium economy and 371 in economy. The new service offers private First class suites on the route for the first time. Customers will also enjoy lie-flat Skybeds in Business, an exclusive Premium Economy cabin and a spacious and comfortable Economy seat.
The state-of-the-art inflight entertainment system offers on-demand access to over 150 movies, 500 television selections, 1000 audio CDs, 80 PC style games, as well as a selection 20 radio channels and arrival guides. USB and PC power ports are also available in all cabins.
Airbus has delivered 140+ A380s to 12 airline customers, with the aircraft having carried a combined total of more than 65 million passengers since entering service in 2007. Logging average daily utilization rates of more than 13 hours, an A380 takes off or lands somewhere in the world every four minutes.
