Back in the early days of long-haul flight, it could take you up to ten days to fly on a lumbering Short Brothers flying boat to travel from Sydney to London with 37 intermediate stops along the way. Later on, by the late 1940s, this arduous journey would be cut to 54 flight hours and seven stops with the arrival of the Lockheed Super Constellation into the Qantas fleet. Carrying just 29 passengers and taking four days in total, the Constellations offered a new level of long-haul luxury on one of the longest scheduled airline routes at the time.
The 1960s saw the dawn of the jet age, with Qantas and BOAC both introducing the illustrious and groundbreaking Boeing 707 intercontinental jetliner onto the route, making just two or three stops along the way.
Nowadays, the journey can be made in around 20 hours by Qantas’ fleet of Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners or Airbus A380s with a single stop along the way in what has become commonly known as the “Kangaroo route”. In the next year or so, the journey will be transformed once again with the inauguration of the first non-stop scheduled commercial flights between Sydney and London, to be operated by Qantas’ all-new Airbus A350-1000 ultra-long-haul jets when they arrive from the European planemaker in 2026.
But while most passengers seem content with a double-digit one-stop slog via Singapore or another stopping-off point in the Middle East, for example, there is one company offering customers the chance to rekindle the golden era of aviation by taking a stopping service between these two cities at the opposite ends of the world.
For a special one-off charter, luxury tour operator Captain’s Choice is offering a fully inclusive air cruise from Sydney to London onboard a Qantas Airbus A330-300 widebodied jet. Departing Sydney on February 3, 2026, and lasting 14 days, the company is offering a new take on the Kangaroo Route, with seven stops along the route to London. The tour takes in Darwin, Singapore, Kolkata, Colombo, Cairo, Rome, and Toulouse, terminating in London on February 17, 2026.
Guests on the “once-in-a-lifetime” air cruise will be accommodated in luxury hotels in each city along the route and will be offered the a selection of excursions in each stopping point, including an Airbus factory tour when the A330 arrives at its spiritual ‘home’ of Toulouse (where it was manufactured) toward the end of the tour.
Captains’ Choice advises that the main cabin configuration of the chartered A330 will be 2-4-2 in economy class. However, only two of the middle seats will be sold to allow more room for passengers to spread out. All guests will receive an aisle or window seat for each sector, with allocations being rotated per sector. In addition, business class catering will be enjoyed throughout the aircraft, regardless of seating category, and a limited number of business class seats will also be available on the air cruise for a supplement.
Qantas normally uses its A330 fleet on domestic and regional routes from its Australian hubs at Sydney, Melbourne, Perth, and Brisbane.
With prices starting at around US$34,000 per person, the tour does not come cheap. Indeed, it will likely only appeal to the well-heeled traveler or, alternatively, to the aviation enthusiast with a serious amount of disposable income who would happily forfeit speed for expense. However, for the opportunity to recreate the golden days of post-war air travel, taking in seven stops in fascinating destinations along the way, this proposition may prove irresistible to some.
