Qantas commenced its latest route on Sunday, connecting Sydney to Dallas Ft. Worth (DFW). This is the first new international destination for Qantas since 2008 when it launched service to Buenos Aires.
(Photo by Phil Derner, Jr.)
Qantas Flight 7 will depart Sydney four times a week on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 13:25 local time and arrive in Dallas 15 hours and 25 minutes later, at 13:50. For the return flights they will depart from Dallas later those same nights at 22:00 and arrive in Sydney at 08:05 two days later, on the return leg the aircraft will make a stop in Brisbane approximately 16 hours after its departure from Dallas.
The flights will be operated by the Boeing 747-400ER, however Qantas has hinted at the possibility that the A380 may soon be seen on this route depending on initial load factors and demand. Qantas has configured its 747ER’s in a four class layout of 14 First Class, 66 Business Class, 40 Premium Economy and 187 Economy Class Seats.
This will be the longest 747-400ER route to date. According to Boeing, the extended range 747 has a range of 7,760 nautical miles. This route definitely pushes the envelope at 7,470 nautical miles and will take nearly 64,000 gallons of jet fuel to power the aircraft across the Pacific Ocean.
This is an important route for Qantas as Dallas-Fort Worth is the biggest hub of fellow OneWorld partner American Airlines. Qantas already created a codeshare agreement with American at DWF to 54 destinations in the United States, Canada and Mexico. Those codeshare destinations include Las Vegas, Chicago, Miami, Vancouver, Toronto, Cancun and Mexico City.
