Qantas, which hopes to buy planes this year for record-breaking 21-hour flights between Sydney and London has two hurdles left to overcome: getting pilots and Australia’s aviation regulator to agree to unprecedented duty times. Airlines around the world are planning longer flights to compete with one-stop rivals and collect a fare premium of about 20% on non-stop routes, which are especially popular with corporate travellers. Airbus and Boeing say their aircraft are ready, with only details like seat configuration left to hammer out, Qantas CE Alan Joyce said. But there is a human cost to flying from Sydney to London or New York that must be resolved before tickets are sold, Joyce added. “We don’t have the ability to do that length of duty today so you do need to negotiate that and get the regulator comfortable with it,” Joyce told Reuters in a phone interview. “If the business case works ... (we can) put an order in by the end of this year and have aircraft arriving in 2022.” Qantas pilots say the unprecedented length of the new flights means the airline needs do more research, consider more training, use more experienced pilots and change what they say is a flawed fatigue-reporting system. The maximum pilot duty time on the Sydney-London flights is expected to be around 23 hours, more than the current limit of 20 hours. “Duty” includes time on the ground before and after flights during which the flight crew is working. Qantas already has 17-hour non-stop journeys between Perth and London with four pilots onboard. Story has more detail.<br/>
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Malaysia Airlines is seeking clearance from its regulator for a proposed metal-neutral joint venture with Japan Airlines covering routes between the two countries. A notice from the Malaysian Aviation Commission shows that the joint venture would allow the two carriers to co-ordinate schedules, capacity, sales and marketing and revenue planning on their passenger services between Japan and Malaysia. A summary of the carriers’ application states that the proposed joint business would “realise significant consumer and economic benefits, and efficiencies that can be achieved through commercial cooperation in relation to the Parties’ respective networks.” It adds that if the two Oneworld carriers were granted regulatory clearance for the tie-up, the strong competition from both direct and indirect operators is “expected to continue to exert competitive pressure on the Parties.” Cirium schedules data shows that in May, Malaysia Airlines is scheduled to operate 50,044 seats between the two countries, putting it in second place behind market leader AirAsia X which will operate 70,499 seats. JAL, meanwhile, will only operate 11,904 seats, putting it behind rival ANA’s 30,544 seats. The proposal is subject to clearance from MAVCOM and Japan’s transport ministry, and no indicative timeframe for those approvals was provided.<br/>