Qantas has ceased its direct flight from Perth Airport (PER) to London-Heathrow Airport (LHR) due to escalating tensions in the Middle East.
The Australian flag carrier said its 17.5-hour outbound QF9 flight from Perth will now make a stop in Singapore Changi Airport (SIN) to refuel, and take an alternative route to London as a “precaution”.
“We’re making adjustments to some of our flight paths due to the situation in parts of the Middle East as a precaution,” an airline spokesperson told Australian media.
Due to prevailing winds, the return flights from London to Perth will still operate directly on a readjusted route.
This is the second time that Qantas has been forced to reroute flights due to tensions in the Middle East. In April 2024, the carrier paused the direct route after Iran declared it would strike Israel for killing a senior Iranian commander in Syria.
The latest announcement follows Iran’s vow to retaliate for the death of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, who was killed by a suspected Israeli airstrike in Tehran on July 31, 2024.
Although Israel has neither confirmed nor denied that it was behind Haniyeh’s killing, it is bracing for a retaliatory attack which could last several days.
2 comments
Well, at last.
Though not wheelchair bound, myself, my wife is so burdened. Even before she had to use the chair, air travel was difficult and the airlines had little concern about the difficulties boarding, deplaning, and travel through a terminal for older passengers.
For younger travelers, it must be difficult to understand, we, the senior population did not intend to move more slowly and with more difficulty because of the pain of movement, we did not intend to impede the speed of getting from one place to another.
Guess what? If you survive to become a septuagenarian, we are not here to inconvenience you, we are just slower than we were in our youth.
To have the Government recognize this fact, and demand that the airlines accommodate their older paying passengers is refreshing. The US population is living longer. The boomers are still alive and should be treated like any other citizen, even if we don’t move as quickly.
Bravo, DOT.
Airline connections are often quite tight. How will accomodating the ‘prompt’ availability of a wheel chair to deplane mobility challenged passengers affect congested egress from aircraft that delay mobile passengers which, for late arrivals makes it likely the connected flight is missed?