British Airways Rumored To Launch Nonstop London To Melbourne With The A350-1000

Real World Aviation
#1

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There are rumors that British Airways is training pilots for a nonstop London Heathrow to Melbourne route.

One of the main indicators of this rumor is British Airways recently purchased a on-board airport navigation system (OANS) of Melbourne Airport for the A350-1000

This is how BA pilots figured out the A350-1000 would operate flights to Austin and Boston before they were loaded, which are set to begin soon.

According to BA pilots, Melbourne Airport (MEL) is now listed as a destination in the on-board airport navigation system. According to GodSaveThePoints, every destination listed in the on-board airport navigation system is a current or future A350-1000 destination.

Additionally, @SeanM1997, a person who covers a bunch of stuff in European/United Kingdom aviation, has also picked up on the rumor.

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I believe British Airways last served Melbourne in 2006 with some sort of fifth-freedom flight. (Singapore?)

If British Airways plans to launch London Heathrow to Melbourne, that would be the world’s longest flight at 10,503 miles (16,902 km) surpassing Singapore Airlines’ Singapore to Newark flight which currently holds title as the world’s longest flight.

LHR-MEL is about 1,000 miles longer than SIN-EWR.

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If British Airways plans to launch this direct flight, they would likely need to use some sort of modified configuration in order to reach the necessary range for the flight.

Of course, they could do some fifth-freedom flight to Melbourne with the A350-1000 instead…

Sources

BA A35K Image: https://www.jetphotos.com/photo/9576377
OANS Info: https://www.godsavethepoints.com/rumor-british-airways-melbourne-australia-service/

British Airways currently flies into Sydney, Australia, using a London Heathrow to Singapore to Sydney routing with the 777-300ER.

What are your thoughts? Do you think BA will beat Qantas’ Project Sunrise plans for nonstop Melbourne to London?

27 Likes
#2

Wut? BA to Melbourne? Non-stop?
Nah…, probably a stop in Bengaluru or something. I think YMML is set in there for a flight to Melbourne but with a stop.
But why would they go to Melbourne if they could go to Sydney instead?

5 Likes
#3

This is awesome! @Infinite_Qantas I think they would go to Melbourne because there’s less competition

2 Likes
#4

Oneworld vs Oneworld? Interesting.

Hotel? Trivago.

9 Likes
#5

Range shouldn’t be an issue given SYD is about 70 miles longer than MEL. I’m assuming they’re trying to avoid potential overlap with its SYD route?

2 Likes
#6

Does the -1000 even have the range for this? It would be the longest flight in the world, right

1 Like
#7

It’s close, but they’d need to use at the very least a low density configuration, though since Qantas has selected this for project sunrise, Airbus probably already has thoughts for how to do that…

3 Likes
#8

Wut who would sit on a plane for that long?

1 Like
#9

You mention VOBL?

1 Like
#10

Yeah… that one

#11

Read my bio. You’ll understand why

#12

Big fan of VOBL?😂

#13

Yes!

KSFO = @GlobalFlyer1
KSJC = @BigBert10
VOBL = @ran

3 Likes
#14

Please keep on topic about the route!

#15

Sorry, but just saying.

#16

Could anyone explain what thing is it

#17

This would be a great innovation for air travel, however they would have to make their premium economy seats into an economy price for it to be a less miserable flight. However many hours, maybe 20+? That’s just unbelievable. They mine as well go to other way around the world coming back.

#18

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This is Airbus’ OANS.

It presents pilots with an overview map display of the airport apron and taxiways, coupled to a new interactive input device to indicate the aircraft’s location on that map.

3 Likes
#19

Wow. This is very un-BA like. It would be super cool if they did this, but I am skeptical of this route a bit… nonstop? With the A35K? I know the a35K has quite a good bit of range, but…

#20

There’s no less competition flying from Melbourne to London - it’s the usual Qatar Airways, Etihad, Emirates, Singapore, Malaysia Airlines, Vietnam Airlines, Thai Airways, China Airlines, Philippine Airlines etc that all fly to Sydney. But Melbourne also has Royal Brunei who fly all the way to London, so…

1 Like