The first of two special Qantas flights chartered by the Australian government to evacuate its citizens out of Lebanon is currently on its way to Cyprus, where it will pick up 220 evacuees and take them straight back to Sydney.
The six-year-old Boeing 787 Dreamliner departed Sydney Airport at around 7 am on September 7 and is expected to arrive in the Cypriot capital, Larnaca, on Monday afternoon after a 15,890 km flight, which is expected to take more than 18 hours.
Onboard the aircraft are four pilots and ten cabin crew, along with medical personnel, ground workers and even engineers with a specialised toolkit just in case the aircraft has a technical problem during its short turnaround in Cyprus.
The plan is to get the evacuees onboard, get the aircraft back in the air, and fly them home to Sydney as quickly as possible. If all goes to plan, Qantas hopes to have the plane depart Larnaca on Monday evening local time and arrive in Sydney on Tuesday evening.
With a flight time of more than 18 hours on the way to Larnaca and a slightly shorter flight time of just over 17 hours on the return flight, the pilots, cabin crew, and other workers will be performing a more than 35-hour roundtrip for this special assistance flight.
The aircraft is carrying a Royal Australian Air Force flight number of ASY1258 as the flight has been chartered by the Australian government. The second planned evacuation flight will carry the ASY1270 flight number and is expected to depart Larnaca on Wednesday evening.
Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade has urged Australians to leave Lebanon immediately and is offering to evacuate some of its citizens using seats it has secured on flights leaving Beirut.
Some of the those flights are to Cyprus where Australian citizens will then be booked free of charge onto one of the two special Qantas repatriation flights.
Australians who can’t get out of Lebanon who choose to stay have been warned that the conflict could quickly escalate and that they should be prepared to shelter in place for an extended period.
Many airlines have already suspended flights to Beirut, and anyone wishing to go to Lebanon should make travel plans before it is potentially too late.
