Qantas will launch a non-stop flight between Perth and London in March 2018.

The new flight will be operated by a Boeing 787-9.

“When Qantas created the Kangaroo Route to London in 1947, it took four days and nine stops,” said Alan Joyce, CEO of the Qantas Group. “Now it will take just 17 hours from Perth non-stop. This is a game-changing route flown by a game-changing aircraft. Australians have never had a direct link to Europe before, so the opportunities this opens up are huge.”

The 14,498km flight will be the third-longest commercial flight in the world, after Air India’s Delhi-San Francisco flight and Qatar Airways’ Doha-Auckland flight which is scheduled to begin in February 2017. Singapore Airlines has also said that it intends to fly non-stop between Singapore and New York using an ultra-long-range version of the Airbus A350-900, which would claim the title of the world’s longest flight when it is confirmed.

Qantas currently flies from Melbourne and Sydney to London via Dubai using A380s.

The carrier has eight 787-9s on order, and has 15 options and 30 purchase rights. The first aircraft is due to be delivered towards the end of 2017.