First direct flight from South India to Australia takes off from Bengaluru today: Report

Bengaluru's Kempegowda International Airport will see its first flight taking off directly to Australia's Sydney on Wednesday evening, a report said.

Australian carrier Qantas is operating its first direct flight from Bengaluru to Sydney on Wednesday. QF68 will take off from Bengaluru's Kempegowda International Airport (KIA) at about 6.35 pm, marking the first direct flight from the southern Indian state to the Australian city, The Times of India reported.

Qantas is operating direct flights between Sydney and Bengaluru via its codeshare agreement with IndiGo. (Photo by DAVID ROWLAND / AFP)

The flight from Bengaluru to Sydney's Kingsford Smith International Airport will be around 11 hours. Qantas will be flying its Airbus A330 for the journey, which is a much-awaited treat to Indian flyers. Seats were sold out on day one, with business and economy classes fully occupied, the report added.

Another Qantas flight, meanwhile, will be making the reverse trip - Sydney to Bengaluru - also on Wednesday. The flight, QF67, which is also completely booked, will land at Bengaluru's KIA at around 4.55 pm.

The Australian airline has a codeshare agreement with India's IndiGo, under which it will run four return flights per week between Sydney and the Karnataka capital - one each on Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

A codeshare agreement allows one airline to sell seats on another airline which has regular operations in an airspace. This is advantageous to aviation companies venturing into new routes.

In similar news from last month, Bengaluru is also set to see the world's largest commercial plane - the Airbus A380 - landing for the first time on October 30, courtesy of Emirates.