For the week 8 forum I decided to talk about the Austral realm. Passengers have taken off for the first direct flight between Australia and London, passing a major milestone by reducing to 17 hours a trip that once took 12 1/2 days. The 9,000-mile flight from Perth, one of the world's most isolated cities, marks the first direct passenger service between the continents. Qantas Airways' inaugural service between the Australian city of Perth and Heathrow took off on Saturday evening and will touch down in London at 5.05am on Sunday before departing for the return trip at 1.15pm that afternoon. Passengers will be on board the Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner aircraft for 17 hours as they make the 9,009-mile journey. This is 24% further than the UK's existing longest route of 7,275 miles, operated by Garuda Indonesia between Heathrow and Jakarta. The new link with Perth will be around three hours quicker than routes which involve stopping in the Middle East to change planes or refuel. It will also enable faster journeys to Sydney and Melbourne than flying via Dubai. The new link is part of Qantas' ambitious plans, unveiled over the past two years, to add ultra-long-haul flights to its global schedules. This will eventually include non-stop flights from Australia's eastern seaboard to Europe in an effort dubbed "Project Sunrise". Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce last year said such flights were "the last frontier of global aviation the antidote to the tyranny of distance and a revolution for air travel in Australia".