Tickets for the first non-stop flight from the UK to Australia went on sale on Thursday as Qantas launched a direct flight between London and Perth.

Daily flights on Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner aircraft will take off on the new route from 25 March 2018, with return fares starting at £1,095 or A$1,893.

The airline said it was the next stage in the evolution of the so-called “kangaroo route”, facilitated by the more fuel-efficient Dreamliner.

The direct Perth flight will take 17 hours to carry passengers 9,000 miles, a far cry from the four days and seven stops it took when Qantas created the route to London in 1947.

“We’ve said the Qantas Dreamliner is a game changer, and that’s becoming real today,” said Alan Joyce, the chief executive of the Australian airline.

“The kangaroo route has kept changing with new technology. It used to take four days and seven stops but now we’re able to link Australia and UK in a single hop. It’s a level of convenience Australians have never had before.”

Passengers travelling from Melbourne to London will now be able to transfer in Perth, rather than Dubai, reducing their total travel time by more than an hour, the airline said. Qantas added that fares may fall to as low as £900 return during deal periods.

The flight between Perth and London will be the longest flight on the Qantas network and the longest Dreamliner flight in the world.

Joyce said Qantas had focused on greater comfort in its Dreamliner cabins and would offer a lower seat count that most of its competitors.

“We’re conscious that this is a long flight, but not much longer than our Sydney to Dallas service,” he said. “It’s the kind of route that the Dreamliner was created for, because of its built-in features to reduce jet lag and improve the overall travel experience.”

He said the route, first announced in December, would appeal to both tourists and business travellers.

“This route makes Western Australia a new tourism gateway for Australia. We know from our research that there’s a lot of appetite to explore the west, not just from British and European visitors but also from Aussies on their way to London. A lot of business travellers, particularly in the resources sector, will stop off in Perth on their way to the UK,” he added.