NO!, I come on Pprune to forget how badly my beloved team are doing the the Premier League, you've gone and spoilt it now :-(

Back on thread (vaguely), twice I've flown PER-MEL and according to my pax log book its a mere 2 hours 50, weight off wheels to weight on, (with Ansett, the day they went bust!) or 3.04 with Jetstar.

So not an altogether stupid way to connect to the East coast if thats what you want to do. Either direct or with a WA stopover. Perhaps not an obvious route, but if the price is right.....

They won't make a bomb on it, but doubtless as has been covered already, it will suit at least some.

After all, Emirates manages to fly 19 hours Dubai to Panama City, and who on earth wants to fly that?

Emirates have postponed the Panama flight

I did PER-MEL last year and it was simple. I think the longest routes are now Emirates to Auckland and Qatar also do that route. Air India have a couple of long routes as well. I think QF have called this correctly as Western Australia will be leaping to do package deals for places folks have never been to.

ceeb,

I recall when it was Malcolm Allison, assisted by one Terry Venables, in charge and one of my ex Ashburton schoolmates was ex player David Price.

There ... much more interesting than Newcastle to Dubai!

As of this week Emirates will be flying 3 x A380 per day DXB-MAN-DXB.

A large percentage are flying on to Oz. If offered a direct MAN-PER, I would jump at it. Am I in the minority? Dunno, but I suppose the same arguments against such long haul flights were put forward when it became possible to fly direct from UK to Hong-Kong without a Bahrain stopover.

Personally I think ULH will become more popular as time goes by and passengers get used to it and the ME cash cow stopover will become a thing of the past.

I have a soft spot for Palace. Seldom offensive and normally good for 6 points for us.

As to ultra long haul, aus is a very long way away from uk and this weak body needs a break on the way back. That's why hkg and sin exist.

One of the pleasantaries of a trip to Oz is the break part way through, especially if the connection is several hours, as often seems to be the case. Get something to eat, drink, have a walk around, even get a shower in the lounge if so entitled. And the several hours makes a Heathrow departure delay no real issue, and your bags will still make it. I would really feel a rapid connection a bit of a downer.

The one upside is that a number of current flights have an early morning arrival in Sydney, and hotels there seem to be more than usually reticent in letting out rooms until official check-in time, in fact more than once there's been an attitude of complete disbelief when I arrive at a major hotel at 8am. I think the times proposed here would be an evening arrival there, much more practical.

I've never understood why the majority of flights from Europe to OZ seem to favour early morning arrivals. Late afternoon, or early evening is my preference. I admit to falling asleep in a hotel reception area in Canberra early one morning. I think my snores expedited the preparation of my room.

Generally a hotel wants you out by 11:00am and doesn't want to see you before 2:00pm to allow for room cleaning between guests. Usually people will check out earlier and check in later which spreads the cleaning time out.

Being a Gold level member in the chains rewards program often helps if you want to check in early. Some hotels such as Travelodge offer early in/late out options for additional cost.

Arrival time definitely figures in my flight booking choices and saving a nights accommodation charges gets factored into the cost.

Unfortunately convenient arrival times aren't always possible due to airport curfew, slot times, aircraft availability etc. A convenient arrival time may require an inconvenient departure time so you can't win.

Looks like Emirates are replacing the A.380 to Perth with a 777

Is the 380 not currently twice daily to PER?

Actually in Aussie, most hotels seem to want to kick you out by 10.00am not 11.00...

They offer two flights a day - looking forward it is 1 x 380 and 1 x 777

mustn't have the pax for 2 x 380 now

I see that Newcastle - Perth is anna aero's route of the week (a route that airlines should consider flying based on the number of requests made to sky scanner).

Newcastle-Perth is "Skyscanner Unserved Route of the Week? with 23,000 annual searches

My view: we live in the real world!

Yes, it's a pain having to change trains in Edinburgh. :O

Why do that when you can just change in Dubai??

That would probably set a new record for circuity at over 6 times the direct distance !

I think your crank is being ever so gently yanked..........:E

Still easier and pleasanter - and maybe even cheaper given UK Rail fares........................

& certainly faster than the Rail Replacement bus.............

In The Independent today. This is an extract with the story here: First UK-Australia non-stop flight schedule revealed | The Independent

Starting 26 March 2018, a Boeing 787-9 twin jet will leave London Heathrow at around 10am, for a noon arrival next day in Perth.

The 17-hour flight officially covers 9,009 miles, but in practice the distance will be higher depending on winds and geo-political considerations; the most direct route passes over the disputed Crimea region of Ukraine.

The “Great Circle” track between the two cities crosses the Caucasus and Iran, then follows the western coast of India to Sri Lanka, which is 5,400 miles from London. The remaining 3,600 miles, about the same as from Heathrow to New York, crosses the Indian Ocean.

Lunch service will begin over Germany, with dinner over the Arabian Sea portion of the Indian Ocean. Passengers will be served breakfast two hours before touchdown at Perth.

After the longest flight from the UK, passengers are likely to be desperate to get off. But some of them will be able to stretch their legs only briefly before re-boarding the plane, which will continue to Melbourne, four-and-a-half hours further on. Connections will be available to Adelaide, Canberra and Sydney.

The return flight to London is expected leave Melbourne at around 7pm and Perth soon after 10pm.

The westbound journey will take an hour longer because of the prevailing headwinds, giving an arrival around 7am in London. It is believed Qantas already owns the Heathrow slots that permit such a pattern.

The “Dreamliner” used for the ultra-long route will have 42 business class “suites”, 28 premium economy seats and 166 economy seats.