The inaugural Qantas flight from Sydney to Santiago departed this morning, opening up new travel opportunities between Australia and South America.
QF27 left Sydney Airport at 11:00am. It is scheduled to arrive in Santiago at 09:55am local time. Flying time to Santiago is 13 hours and 10 minutes.
From today Qantas will offer three return services a week on the Sydney-Santiago route (Monday, Wednesday, Saturday), operated by a Boeing 747 that has been refurbished with award-winning A380-style cabins, seats and inflight entertainment.
LAN Airlines will codeshare on the Qantas services while the Australian airline will continue to codeshare on LAN’s daily services between Sydney and Santiago via Auckland. As fellow oneworld™ members, Qantas and LAN will continue to work together to promote travel between Australia, Chile and the broader South American region.
Group Executive Qantas Airlines Commercial, Rob Gurney, said Qantas was delighted to launch services to Santiago.
“Santiago is one of South America’s most dynamic business centres and provides excellent connections to the rest of the continent,” Mr Gurney said.
“There are strong ties between Australia and South America, with growing visitor numbers, mutual investment and an Australia-Chile free trade agreement in place.
“Flying to Santiago is part of Qantas’ strategy to target global gateway cities. South America’s fast-growing economies make it the perfect time to introduce this new, non-stop service to one of the region’s major hubs.
“It is also pleasing to be expanding our long-standing relationship with Chile’s national carrier, LAN. Together we will offer ten services per week between Sydney and Santiago and access to LAN’s extensive South American network.”