maui,
You obviously do not share my curiosity as to the routing the 777 will fly mel-jnb and the other things that will impact its operation.
In this case, the great circle track IS the quickest both in track distance and with prevailing wind, by a considerable margin. And that was the point of my post. Whilst the 777 can make it Mel-Jnb non-stop, the track it will be forced to fly will suffer both wind and distance penalties that will no doubt impact on available payload.
As a couple of people have pointed out, a transit Perth to take advantage of the market there seems pretty obvious, however as usual, marketing people know best.
It would also be interesting to see how or if BRW is limited out of Jnb on the return.
Hope you feel better soon .........
N