Dubai-based Emirates Airline said it has no plans to launch a direct flight from Perth to London in response to the Australian flag carrier’s recently announced plans to offer a non-stop flight on one of the world’s longest commercial passenger routes.

“We remain committed to offering 77 flights a week between Australia and Dubai, with onwards connections to 38 European destinations including six in the United Kingdom alone,” Emirates said in a statement.

Qantas Airways announced on 12 December that it plans to start regular non-stop flights between Perth and London in March 2018. The 14,498-kilometer route, which used to take a multi-day trip, will be shortened to 17 hours.

Qantas described the service as a game-changing route that opens up huge opportunities.

However, it could also potentially devalue or negatively impact its alliance with Emirates. Qantas is the only other airline that is catered to by Dubai International’s Terminal 3 apart from Emirates.

Qantas will be flying US-based Boeing’s long-range Dreamliners, whose first units it expects to start receiving in 2017, on the planned route. The airline said seats on the Perth-London flights will start to go on sale in April 2017.

The 14,498-kilometer route, frequently referred to as the Kangaroo Route, started in 1935 with a 12.5-day trip between London and Brisbane, located in Australia’s east coast. Stopovers are understood to have once included Brisbane, Darwin, Singapore, Bangkok, Calcutta, Karachi, Cairo, Rome and Frankfurt.

Apart from the Perth-London route, the new Dreamliner aircraft provides Qantas with scope to fly direct from Australia’s eastern seaboard to US cities such as Dallas or Chicago, according to Joyce.