Coronavirus: Qantas to operate first non-stop flight from Darwin to Heathrow

Australian carrier Qantas will temporarily operate its Sydney to London flight via the capital of Australia’s Northern Territory, where the Airbus A380 aircraft will stop off to refuel.

Qantas and Jetstar international flights will be suspended from end March until at least 31 May 2020. Domestic flying reduced by 60% until the end of May 2020. International lounges and a number of domestic lounges will be temporarily closed. Full details https://t.co/P11mGmj8Ci.

— Qantas (@Qantas) March 18, 2020

The flight to the UK’s largest airport from Darwin will take 16 hours and 45 minutes – believed to be the first non-stop flight between the two destinations.

The temporary route will only operate this week, before Qantas suspends all international flights until May 31 at the earliest.

It comes after NHS nurses accused the Government of “turning their backs” on them, as they were left stranded in Australia following numerous flight cancellations.

The 27-year-old, from Preston, worked as an accident and emergency nurse in a hospital in Southport, Merseyside.

She said she had been in contact with former colleagues in the UK about returning to work, who said they are “so short-staffed” they need as much help as possible.

Ms Mclaughlin said she had managed to secure a seat on the flight from Darwin to Heathrow, but there were a number of NHS staff, including doctors and physiotherapists, who are still searching for a route back to the UK.

“We’ve been to the embassy, trying to get hold of people to help us, but we’re just getting no answers,” Ms Mclaughlin told the PA news agency.

“I don’t think it’s good enough. We need to be prioritising flights for the NHS key workers to be getting home to be helping the pandemic.

UK nationals in Australia: we are setting up a way for you to provide your contact details to us. We will be able to communicate with you directly, including updates on commercial flight availability to the UK. It will go live today.

— UK in Australia 🇬🇧🇦🇺 (@ukinaustralia) March 24, 2020

“I have hopefully got this flight confirmed for tomorrow, but it’s still helping all the other people along the way trying to get home.”

She said one-way flights to the UK were costing upwards of 13,000 dollars (£6,600), adding: “As nurses, we don’t have that sort of money to be able to book a flight and get home.

“We’re really keen to come and help but we’re all feeling a little bit like everyone has turned their back on us at the moment.

“It’s such a long way to be stuck with no flights with no help from the embassy or the Government.”

Ms Mclaughlin said bringing back nurses from retirement was “fantastic”, but said there were young nurses around the world who want to return to help the NHS.

The 28-year-old, who has been travelling around Australia for three months with his girlfriend, who is a nurse, said he was in a Facebook group with another 500 NHS workers looking to get back from Australia.

“If there’s any way of just promoting this idea that if there is repatriation, there’s a whole bunch of useful people that are willing to come back now, as soon as possible, to work,” he told PA.

“I personally feel that these are people that need to be back in the country.

“My reason for wanting to come back is really because I want to provide some help at home.”

A spokeswoman for the UK's Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) said: “We recognise British tourists abroad are finding it difficult to return to the UK because of the unprecedented international travel and domestic restrictions that are being introduced around the world – often with very little or no notice.

“The FCO is working around the clock to support British travellers in this situation to allow them to come back to the UK.”