Richard Branson says Virgin wants to launch Perth to London direct flights

[dricia]

QANTAS may face stiff competition on its Perth to London non-stop with Virgin Atlantic’s founder flagging a start of operations as soon as possible.

According to CH-Aviation Sir Richard Branson told Your Money host Brooke Corte that he wants to start services “as soon as possible.”

Qantas launched the Perth to London service in March and has enjoyed high load factors of 92 per cent overall and 94 per cent in the premium cabins.

Virgin Atlantic has 17 Boeing 787-9s in its fleet, however they are powered by Rolls Royce Trent engines which have corrosion issues and a number of the fleet are grounded awaiting replacement fan blades.

The same issue is impact airlines across the world, including Thai, British Airways and Air New Zealand.

The service would likely be a code share flight with Virgin Australia and with Delta Air Lines would be a round world service.

In fact, this is not the first time that Mr Branson has looked at London to Perth direct flights.

During a visit to Perth to launch The West Australian’s Leadership Matters series in 2003, he discussed the possibility of acquiring several ex Air Canada four-engine A340-500s and flying the route.

The aircraft are the same that Singapore Airlines used at the same time to launch the Singapore to New York non-stop flights.

However, when the fuel price soared the route became unviable and has only been restarted this month with the far more economical twin-engine A350-900ULR.