Qantas has confirmed that it will operate non-stop flights from Perth to London using the 787-9 Dreamliner. The 14,498km service will be the first regular passenger service to directly link Australia with Europe when it begins in March 2018.

The new flight will operate through Qantas’ existing domestic terminals (T3/4), which will be upgraded to accommodate international flights. The airline’s current international services from Perth (to Singapore and to Auckland) will also move to this terminal. Qantas will move its operations to an expanded Terminal 1 at Perth Airport by 2025, pending a commercial agreement.

Seats on the Perth-London flights will go on sale in April 2017 for the first services in March 2018. The Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners used on the route will carry 236 passengers across Business, Premium Economy and Economy cabins.

The flight will take approximately 17 hours and is expected to be the third-longest passenger flight in the world. It will be the longest flight on the Qantas network, ahead of the non-stop A380 Sydney-Dallas service (13,730km), and the longest flight of any carrier with the Boeing 787.

The last time the national carrier flew from Australia to Europe non-stop was in 2015, when it operated a one-off Boeing 747-400 charter flight from Perth to Istanbul to take Australians to the Centenary of Anzac at Gallipoli.