New ultra-long-haul route to launch between Chicago and Brisbane

Qantas announces O’Hare-Brisbane route almost as long as London-Perth

Deep blue: all but three hours of the journey will be across the Pacific (Great Circle Mapper)

Qantas has announced a new ultra-long-haul route between Chicago and Brisbane.

From 20 April 2020, the 8,901 miles between the Midwest city and the Queensland capital will be connected by a flight scheduled to take 17 hours 20 minutes going west.

Because of the international date line, passengers will leave from Chicago O’Hare airport at 9.50pm and arrive in Brisbane two days later at 6.10pm.

Flying east, take-off is at 3.30pm with arrival, local time, just 70 minutes later at 4.40pm on the same day.

The link is likely to become the fourth-longest in the world, after the 9,529-mile route from Singapore to New York operated by Singapore Airline; Auckland to Doha on Qatar Airways (9,032 miles); and the Qantas route from Heathrow to Perth (9,009 miles).

The first three hours of the westbound flight will be across the US, and the remainder over the Pacific Ocean. Possible diversion airports include Honolulu in Hawaii and Nadi in Fiji.

Like the Heathrow-Perth link, the new route will be operated by the Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner.

The airline says: “The flight number, QF85/86, pays homage to the 1985 Chicago Bears football team, winners of the 1986 Superbowl and widely regarded as one of the best teams in history.”

Naren Kumar, acting chief executive for Qantas International, said: “We’ll be working closely with our industry and government partners to jointly promote Brisbane and everything Queensland and Australia have to offer.”

The fastest journey time from London Heathrow via Chicago to Brisbane will be 29 hours, using the latest British Airways departure of the day and including a three-hour stopover at O’Hare.

The main Qantas hub in Australia is Sydney, but is an extra 331 miles further – at the extreme of the aircraft’s range, particularly flying west.

Qantas is planning nonstop flights from London to Sydney, a distance of 10,573 miles, by 2022.