First Commercial Flight from Australia to the UK

Qantas’ service from Sydney to Heathrow, via Darwin, took off today, marking the first commercial flight from Australia to the United Kingdom in nearly 600 days.

Apart from its Trans-Tasman connection with New Zealand, QF1 was one of the first commercial foreign flights from Australia since the Covid epidemic. On 1st November, it departed Sydney at 6:30 p.m. local time.

The QF12 flight from Los Angeles to Sydney was the first to land in Australia, arriving at 6 a.m. local time with no border or quarantine restrictions for fully-vaccinated passengers.

Due to a higher-than-expected uptake of Covid-19 vaccines in Australia, the country’s foreign travel resumption date was moved up from 14th November to 1st November.

Australian citizens, permanent residents, and their immediate families and parents are the only people who will be able to fly on the inaugural services. Flights to additional Qantas locations are expected to resume in the following weeks.