Sydney (dpa) - Australia's flagship airline Qantas on Saturday launched a one-off, seven-hour flight around the country for travellers who are missing the experience of flying.
Flying has ground virtually to a halt in Australia amid the coronavirus pandemic. Saturday's flight is a special scenic trip to nowhere.
Only 150 passengers were aboard the Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner that took off from Sydney's Kingsford Smith international airport Saturday morning.
Qantas is calling the leisurely journey "a once-in-a-lifetime aerial tourism flight over some of Australia’s most iconic destinations."
The full-day outing - on a wide-bodied twinjet usually reserved for long-haul international flights - features a number of low-level flybys of key locations along the New South Wales and Queensland coasts as well as Uluru in the Northern Territory.
The flight path was designed by the airline's flight crew "to showcase the unique Australian landscape from a different perspective, and without having to worry about continued border closures," according to Qantas.
Captain Alex Passerini said that while flight crews often pass over these landmarks as part of normal flying, it’s at 35,000 feet (10.7 kilometres) rather than the circa 4,000 feet that the scenic flight will drop to at key points.
“We will angle the aircraft so that passengers on both sides get a great view, in particular of Uluru after we were granted special permission for the flyover. It’s going to be a really special day and we are excited to be back in the air again," he said.
The low-level "Great Southern Land" flight circuit will also fly by the Great Barrier Reef and Sydney Harbour before the jet lands back where it started.
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