The route from Heathrow will be the first regular passenger service to travel non-stop from Europe to Australia, and will take around 17 hours.

Daily flights will begin on March 25 2018 and form part of a new London-Perth-Melbourne return service. They will depart Heathrow at 13.30 and Perth at 18.50.   

The service will be operated by Qantas’ new Boeing 787-Dreamliner, which has been designed specifically for comfort on long-haul routes.  

Customers will be able to transfer from the West Australian capital to 10 onward destinations across the country within four hours of arrival including seven regional towns in Western Australia, including Broome, Karratha and Paraburdoo.  

There is also expected to be a surge in stopovers within Western Australia.

The new QF9/QF10 will replace Qantas’ existing London-Dubai-Melbourne service – marking the next evolution of the “Kangaroo Route”, seven decades after the national carrier first flew British customers all the way to Australia.

Qantas Group chief executive Alan Joyce said there had been global interest in the London-Perth flights since they were announced in December 2016.   

“We’ve said the Qantas Dreamliner is a game changer, and that’s becoming real today,” he said.
 
“The Kangaroo Route has kept changing with new technology.  

“It used to take four days and seven stops but now we’re able to link the UK and Australia in a single hop.  

“It’s a level of convenience those in Europe have never had before.
 
“We’re conscious that this is a long flight, but not much longer than our Sydney to Dallas service.  

“It’s the kind of route that the Dreamliner was created for, because of its built-in features to reduce jetlag and improve the overall travel experience.
 
“We’ve added a very high level of comfort in each of the cabins and a lower seat count than most of our competitors.  

“And we’re making tweaks to our in-flight service designed to help customers enjoy the journey more.”
 
Joyce continued: “This route makes Western Australia a new tourism gateway for Australia.  

“We know from our research that there’s a lot of appetite to explore the West, not just from British and European visitors but also from Aussies on their way to London.”
 
Qantas is building a new transit lounge at Perth airport to “enable a smooth transition with international and domestic flights arriving and departing from the same terminal”, with dedicated customs and immigration.
 
Qantas is also building a new lounge in Heathrow’s Terminal 3 that will have capacity for approximately 230 people. It will open later this year.
 
Qantas has expanded its marketing of the route, making London-Perth the focus of the next phase of its Feels Like Home advertising campaign launching in the UK and Australia on Qantas’ own channels today (Thursday) and in coming days in the UK on digital channels.
 
Year round return economy fares for the London-Melbourne route start from £1,115 and the London-Perth route start from £1,095, but these are expected to drop below £900 return during deal periods.

Year-round return Premium Economy fares for the London-Melbourne route start from £2,435 and London-Perth route start from £2,335.

Year-round return Business fares for the London-Melbourne route start from £4,240 and the London-Perth route start from £4,240.

Elsewhere, by swapping its daily A380 London-Dubai-Melbourne service for a daily 787-9 London-Perth-Melbourne service, Qantas has made the state of Victoria the hub for its first four Dreamliners.  

Qantas’ first two 787s will be dedicated to the Melbourne-Los Angeles route from December 2017, with the third and fourth aircraft dedicated to London-Perth-Melbourne service from March 2018.
 
With a faster flying time and quicker connections in Perth, customers travelling from London to Melbourne will reduce their total travel time by approximately an hour compared with existing Qantas A380 services.