After more than three years off the route, Qantas is restarting it’s Sydney-San Francisco route with the airline confirming it’s first direct flights will leave the tarmac in May this year.
Originally scheduled to fly in October last year, Qantas will fly passengers to San Francisco onboard a Boeing 787 Dreamliner from May 22.
QF73 will depart Sydney airport at 9:55pm every Monday, Thursday and Saturday, touching down in the states at 6:15pm local time. On the return, flights will depart the same days at 10:25pm, landing at Kingsford-Smith around 6:15pm.
Aircraft shortages can be blamed for the time between drinks on this route, only six Qantas A380 aircrafts have been returned to service at this stage, with the remaining four scheduled to return at the end of the year after maintenance and upgrades.
There are also a number of flight paths these planes are currently covering, including to Los Angeles and Dallas/Fort Worth, plus the ongoing Sydney-Vancouver, Perth-London and Sydney-Johannesburg routes.
Qantas is due to receive three more Boeing 787-9s by the end of June 2023, which will come just in time for the launch of Sydney-Auckland-New York.
When Sydney-San Francisco takes off, Qantas will have some incumbent competition on the route, with United’s daily Boeing 777 flight (UA870) having an almost 12 month head start on the Australian airline, after taking off back in June 2022.
Qantas’ own flights from Brisbane and Melbourne to San Francisco currently remain on ice, with no dates scheduled for a return.
