Qantas will operate its new 787-9 aircraft on a new route between Melbourne and San Francisco in late 2018.

The airline took delivery of its first 787-9 in October 2017 and recently launched long-haul operations with it between Melbourne and Los Angeles, flying between the two cities six days a week and adding to the existing daily Airbus A380 flight.

With the launch of the Melbourne-San Francisco flight, Qantas will fly the 787 to LA on some days of the week and to San Francisco on the others.

Qantas also revealed the name of its just-delivered second 787-9 as Waltzing Matilda, the name of the song which is often called Australia’s unofficial national anthem.

“Banjo Paterson is said to have written Waltzing Matilda while working on a cattle station in the outback Queensland town of Winton, which was also the birth place of Qantas 25 years later,” said Alison Webster, CEO of Qantas International. “The name of this aircraft will be seen by thousands of people a year when it pulls up at airport gates around the world. For Australians it’s a familiar touch of home. For some of our customers flying from overseas, there will probably be some googling to find out what it means. The Melbourne-Los Angeles flight was the first international service that we put our very first Airbus A380 on in 2008, so there’s a nice symmetry with this being the first for our Dreamliner as well.”

Qantas has six more 787-9s on order. The arrival of the third and fourth aircraft early next year will enable the carrier to start its non-stop flight between Perth and London flight, which originates in Melbourne. All eight aircraft will be delivered by the end of 2018, with half of them based in Melbourne and the other half based in Brisbane.

Qantas received approximately 45,000 suggestions from the public to name the new fleet of 787s. The first is named Great Southern Land, while the remaining six will be given the names Great Barrier Reef, Skippy, Boomerang, Quokka, Uluru and Dreamtime.