Qantas to Fly Its Dreamliner Between San Francisco and Melbourne

Update 1/18/2018 5:30pm ET: Qantas has announced that it's launching this new service on September 1, 2018 (August 31, 2018, in the US). Fares are available as of today.

Here's the operating schedule — both operate on Wednesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays:

• QF49 Melbourne (MEL) 9:40pm Departure ⇒ San Francisco (SFO) 7:00pm Arrival
• QF50 San Francisco (SFO) 10:00pm Departure ⇒ Melbourne (MEL) 6:30am (+2) Arrival

Qantas announced on Thursday that it's set to launch a new Dreamliner route. In 2018, the Australian carrier will deploy its 787-9 on a new route between San Francisco (SFO) and Melbourne (MEL).

The new service is expected to launch at some point in late 2018, though an exact date hasn't been set. In the announcement, the carrier said that tickets between SFO and MEL will go on sale in early 2018.

Qantas has released very few details at this point. We don't yet know the frequencies with which this route will operate, and we don't yet know the schedule. Once the route launches in 2018, it will be the only nonstop option between the two cities.

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The carrier took delivery of its first 789 in October. TPG's JT Genter flew the aircraft in premium economy between Sydney (SYD) and Melbourne (MEL) and enjoyed his experience. On Friday, the carrier will launch the aircraft on its first international long-haul route between Melbourne (MEL) and Los Angeles (LAX). Eventually, in March 2018, Qantas will use the 789 to operate the world's longest flight between London (LHR) and Perth (PER).

The carrier's Dreamliner aircraft are equipped with three cabins: business, premium economy and economy. More specifically, you'll find 42 business seats in a 1-2-1 configuration, 28 premium economy seats in a 2-3-2 configuration and 166 economy seats in a 3-3-3 configuration.