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| QANTAS B787-9 VH-ZNF (MSN 36239) File Photo |
A Qantas Dreamliner completed a record breaking flight from Buenos Aires (EZE/SAEZ) to Darwin (DRW/YPDN) yesterday, a 9,118 mile (14,673 kilometer) odyssey that took 17 hours - 26 minutes to complete. The flight is going into the record books as the longest ever commercial Qantas flight. VH-ZNH (MSN 36241) named the Great Barrier Reef took off from Buenos Aires’ Ezeiza International Airport at 12:44 local time on Tuesday.
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| Image - Flightradar24 |
The flight is slightly longer distance-wise than the marathon Perth-London flights Qantas operated until it suspended its international services in 2020. However, it is shorter than the occasional nonstop jaunt between London and Sydney Qantas has flown before. But those London-Sydney flights didn’t carry fare-paying passengers. Today’s flight to Darwin does.
But this is no regular flight. It is another one of the many repatriation flights Qantas runs on behalf of the Australian Government to get stranded Australians home. Nearly eighteen months after borders closed, that saga continues.
Onboard are fare-paying Australians. Some, who were in dire straits, were handpicked to fly by Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. Others bought tickets normally and had to position themselves at EZE to fly out on Tuesday.
The flight is interesting for a few reasons. It’s a long flight that will push the Dreamliner towards to limit of its capabilities. The journey overflies a part of the world that rarely sees aircraft. Finally, the flight’s arrival into Darwin rockets that small airport into haloed territory.
According to an Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) report on Wednesday morning, last nights arrival of QF14 saw Darwin join just three other airports that have ever received nonstop flights from all six continents. Those other airports are Doha, Dubai, and London.
Story sourced from here but with alterations:
Qantas Flies Mega 14,673KM Flight To Darwin - Simple Flying
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