25 August, 2017
The airline wants to offer the 17,038km flight by 2022, should Airbus or Boeing deliver aircraft capable of meeting the distance, Reuters reported.
At the moment there's no aircraft that can go the distance non-stop while loaded with passengers and luggage.
However, two aircraft models now in development - Boeing's 777X and a long-range version of Airbus' A350 - can get close.
Qantas has announced it will launch nonstop flights from Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane to NY and London by 2022.
The longest commercial route now flown is Qatar's 16-hour, 14,535km Doha-Auckland leg.
The airline flies a Boeing 777-200LR to cover the more than 14,500km journey, taking nearly 17 hours.
Qantas' proposed routes from Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane would slash up to four hours off the total journey, now at around 24 hours including connection time on the ground.
It's estimated that passengers on a non-stop version of today's QF1 flight from Sydney to London would be in the air for 20 hours and 20 minutes - a saving of nearly four hours compared to the total journey time of today's route via Dubai.
The Sydney-New York flight is estimated to take 18 hours and seven minutes, saving travellers two hours and 43 minutes due to the lack of a stopover.
While Qantas has made no secret about its ambition to fly from Sydney to London direct, this will be its strongest commitment yet and the first time it's put a timeline on it, effectively dangling a multi-million-dollar carrot for the technology that makes it possible.
The company is expected to launch its new Perth to London route on March 24 of next year. This is a game-changing route flown by a game-changing aircraft'.
