Australia’s flagship airline Qantas has announced that it will launch a nonstop flight from Dallas to Melbourne this December.

The new direct route from the Texan city to the capital of Victoria will start from 2 December 2022, with four weekly return flights operating between Melbourne and major US hub, Dallas Fort Worth International Airport.

Though Qantas already runs flights between Dallas and Sydney, the new route is the first by any airline between the two cities.

Once launched, it will become the world’s fourth-longest passenger flight by distance, covering 8,992 miles - the current top three are Singapore Airlines’ Singapore to NYC route (9,537 miles), Qatar Airways’ Auckland to Doha (9,032 miles) and Qantas’ nonstop Perth to London flight (9,009 miles).

The top 10 longest-haul flights list is set to change a couple of times this year, with the arrival of United Airlines’ San Francisco to Bengaluru flight (8,701 miles) taking sixth place in May, followed by Air New Zealand’s Auckland to New York City flight (8,828 miles), launching in September and slotting in at number four - before being replaced by Qantas’s Dallas-Melbourne.

Qantas also announced that it is doubling its flights between Melbourne and Los Angeles - from four per week to eight - from this week.

From September, some of these will be operated on the carrier’s refurbished A380s, with a reconfigured business class cabin and extended premium cabin, as well as refreshed economy seats.

On Friday the airline unveiled a nostalgic new advert, which will be shown on all of its flights arriving back in Australia.

The video features Aussie celebrities including Kylie Minogue, Hugh Jackman and Troye Sivan singing I Still Call Australia Home, a Peter Allen song first used by the airline in its 1980s adverts.

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