MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Qantas begins non-stop flights Sydney-Buenos Aires

After a six-year absence, Australia's flagship airline Qantas returned to Argentina on Monday with direct flights between Sydney and Buenos Aires. The inaugural flight to Buenos Aires departed Sydney at 10.50am and arrived in Buenos Aires at 11am.

According to Captain Greg Mathews, who was at the helm of the aircraft, the highly efficient 747 plus the new technology that it has on board enabled the flight to be completed in less than 12 hours, considerably less than the 16 hours it used to take when flying to Sydney via Auckland. At a presentation in Buenos Aires, the General Manager of sales and distribution for the Qantas Group, Rob Gurney, said that the response to the new flights had been very positive. "Argentina is a popular destination for Australian travellers and traffic between South America and Australia has been growing sustainedly." The airline is not only betting on traffic from Argentina as it feels that many South American passengers seeking to fly to Asia may opt for this route rather than put up with the strict visa requirements imposed by the United States for passengers in transit through Los Angeles. Gurney considered that the new route will not affect Qantas' current code-share agreement with Lan Chile, with whom it operates six flights a week out of Santiago to Sydney via Auckland. "We need the flights so that we can build up the volume on the route," Gurney said. The airline will be flying from Buenos Aires on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday, departing Ezeiza international airport.