Two carriers have revealed details of new ultra long-haul services that aim to slash journey times by several hours.
Air Canada says it will start a Boeing 777-200LR service from Vancouver to Sydney in December and says it will be the only airline offering non-stop Canada-Australia flights.
The direct routing, at 15h southbound and 14h northbound, shaves more than 3h off the current one-stop service that stops in Honolulu. Air New Zealand will also codeshare on the rotation.
To the other side of the world, Continental Airlines says it will begin daily non-stop services between New York Newark and Mumbai from October this year, subject to government approval.
Flying time using Boeing 777-200 machines, will be 14h50m eastbound and a hefty 16h15 westbound.