This month sees Qantas launch a series of non-stop flights from Sydney and Brisbane to Las Vegas, skipping the usual stopover at LAX and heading straight for that neon-lit playground in the Nevada desert.
But for Qantas, these five Boeing 787 flights are anything but a gamble.
Each plane is a special charter service carrying Rugby League fans to Vegas for the February 28 kick-off of the 2026 NRL season at the city’s 60,000-seat Allegiant Stadium.
The day hosts NRL two matches – the Bulldogs will take on the Dragons, while the Knights go head to head with the Cowboys – and Qantas International CEO Cam Wallace said “we’ve been surprised by the unlocking of demand that those NRL rounds have given us.”
“It’s a good opportunity for us to test the market and see what underlying demand is” for scheduled direct flights between Australia and Las Vegas, Wallace told Executive Traveller in late 2025.
“We really see Vegas as a target market for us,” Wallace added. “It’s a market that both Qantas and Jetstar have been assessing.”
Qantas and Jetstar are both keeping a close eye on direct Australia-Vegas flights.
In addition to the traditional tourism pull of Las Vegas, the city hosts many of the world’s largest international conventions and trade shows.
The largest is SEMA, an automotive aftermarket trade show held in late October with some 160,000 attendees.
January’s dazzling Consumer Electronics Show pulls in close to 120,000 visitors, while some 70,000 media professionals attend the National Association of Broadcasters event in April.
Wallace described Las Vegas as showing “growing seasonal demand,” and considers a seasonal 787 service as a likely starter.
“So that’s something that we can look at, although we don’t have any plans to announce it in the near term… our ability to open up new markets is going to be enabled and unlocked by new aircraft being delivered.”
Although there’s some knock-on effect as the long-legged Airbus A321XLRs join the fleet, the biggest boost for Qantas’ long-range network will be the arrival of a dozen new Boeing 787s, expected from the first half of 2028.
Bris-Vegas to Las Vegas?
Las Vegas has often appeared on the shortlist of future US routes for the Flying Kangaroo, alongside Chicago and Seattle – although Seattle-Sydney could be flown by Oneworld partner Alaska Airlines.
But while Qantas could default to a Sydney-Vegas route, Jetstar CEO Steph Tully has her eye on Brisbane-Vegas – or, as she puts it, “Bris-Vegas to Las Vegas.”
“It’s very Jetstar, we think,” she has told The Australian.
Jetstar’s 2026 upgrade of its own Boeing 787s will add a crew rest area to extend the Dreamliner’s operational range to as much as 16 hours.
The business class cabin is being more than doubled to 44 seats – albeit recliners rather than flatbeds, using the same seat as Emirates’ premium economy – with satellite Wi-Fi also being added.
