While most Americans were mourning the end of the summer over Labor Day Weekend, Qantas was celebrating the beginning of a new era, the era of the Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner. On Saturday, Qantas inaugurated a new route from Melbourne to San Francisco on the aircraft, as well as replaced its iconic Boeing 747-400 aircraft on the Brisbane to New York route via Los Angeles with the Dreamliner.
Connecting Port Phillip Bay to San Francisco Bay
This is the first time that San Francisco is receiving non-stop service from the Southern Australia city of Melbourne, the furthest inland city that Qantas serves non-stop from North America. The non-stop link between the two major cities cuts down travel times by removing the need to either connect in Los Angeles or Sydney and freeing up precious space on Los Angeles and San Francisco to Sydney flights.
Qantas cabin crew touring San Francisco to celebrate the inaugural flight to Melbourne. (Photo: Qantas)
“This is great news for San Francisco travelers, as they will have direct flights to Melbourne for the very first time,” said Qantas International CEO Alison Webster. “This will reduce travel times by around two hours which means less time in the air and more time to explore or work in Melbourne.”
Currently, the Australian national airline flies non-stop from Sydney to San Francisco six times weekly using its larger Boeing 747-400 and non-stop between Los Angeles and Melbourne 13 times during the week. Once in Melbourne, onward passengers have the option to connect to 60 destinations via Qantas’ southern hub, especially as Australian tourism and investment to and from the U.S. grows.
“Travel between the United States and Australia continues to grow – with a 13 percent increase in visitors to Australia in the past year. This will allow more entrepreneurs from both countries to explore opportunities and share ideas.”
Qantas plans to operate the route four times weekly on Wednesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays, and Sundays with the flights to California traveling back in time thanks to the International Date Line. The outbound to San Francisco, QF49, departs Melbourne Tullamarine Airport at 9:40 p.m. and arrives at San Francisco International Airport earlier in the day at 7:00 p.m. after a 14 hour and 20-minute flight across the Pacific.
On the return to Melbourne, QF50 departs San Francisco at 10:00 p.m. and arrives back in Melbourne at 6:30 a.m. after a 15 hour and 30-minute flight. Due to the late departure of the flight and the International Date Line, you’ll arrive in the Land Down Under two days later, although only flying just over half a day to get there.
Passengers on Saturday’s inaugural flight to San Francisco were treated to the typical inaugural festivities, including balloons and cupcakes at the gate and the airline’s kangaroo mascot Matilda handing out business class pajamas to all passengers. Qantas assigned its special livery Dreamliner for the flight called Yam Dreaming, registration VH-ZND, which celebrates Australia’s Aboriginal background…
