The seventeen-hour Qantas flight between Perth and London is back. After a two-year plus pause, Qantas resumed the long-haul flights on Monday, operating VH-ZNA on the QF9 Melbourne - Perth - London service. Qantas is now back running the service once a day - it's QF9 over to London, and QF10 back to Australia. The 9,000 plus mile (14,500 kilometer) flight is one of the longest scheduled flights in the world.

On Monday, VH-ZNA, a Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner, pushed back in Melbourne (MEL) for the three-hour and 40-minute flight west to Perth (PER). The transit in Perth was longer than timetabled, and the jet didn't depart until after 20:00 local time. At the time of publication, VH-ZNA is around halfway to London (LHR) and is due to touch down there just before 07:00 (local time) on Tuesday.

Darwin Airport's moment in the sun is ending

The Perth pitstop means QF9/QF10 will no longer transit in Darwin (DRW) when flying between Melbourne and London. QF1/QF2, which flies the Sydney (SYD) - London route, will continue to touchdown in Darwin until next month when services resume flying through Singapore (SIN) once again. At this point, Darwin will resume its status as a sleepy Qantas port, with only one QF-operated international service out of the airport and a handful of daily domestic flights down to Australia's southern capitals.

But Darwin's loss is Perth's gain, or rather, regain. For all the hoopla surrounding QF9/QF10, the London via Perth flights only began in 2018 - they've not been operating for longer than they've actually operated. Still, the flights helped cement Perth Airport's potential future role as a jumping-off point for Qantas flights heading out over the Indian Ocean. Despite the pandemic disruptions, Qantas now plans to start Perth - Rome (FCO) in June and has floated the idea of future Perth - Johannesburg (JNB) flights.

Good news for Perth Airport

After a few hours on the ground in London, the Qantas Dreamliner will turn around to operate QF10 back to Melbourne, closing the last doors just before midday and landing in Perth at 11:40 the following day. The evening departure from Perth and the late morning QF10 arrival gives connecting passengers plenty of time to hop on or off flights in Perth to or from the feeder cities of Sydney, Brisbane, and Adelaide. One of the QF9/QF10 selling points is the ease of transfer in Perth, with all Qantas services using the connected Terminals Three and Four.

"This direct service will be convenient for those passengers heading to the UK and Europe and will help recover the UK tourism market for Western Australia," said Perth Airport CEO Kevin Brown. "We are looking forward to working constructively with Qantas as we rebuild the sector with the direct London service as well as the direct Rome service which commences in June."

The reinstatement of the Perth - London flights is another step towards restoring Qantas' international network. Except for flights into North Asia, Qantas has returned or confirmed it will return to most of its former ports. Capacity and frequencies are necessarily what they were pre-pandemic, with Qantas having to balance aircraft and crew availability, travel restrictions, and passenger demand. But the return of QF9 and QF10 to Perth highlights the big Australian airline is flying in the right direction.