Western Australia’s Premier has labeled an idea to move its non-stop Perth to London flights to Darwin as “outrageous”.

Qantas says it is thinking about migrating the flights once international borders resume because of WA’s hardline border policy.

In any case, Mark McGowan has condemned the potential change, contending a terminal at Perth Airport had been moved up to get the flights at a cost of $15 million.

Qantas anticipates that its direct flights from Australia should the UK to be popular once international travel is permitted.

The flight time from Perth to London, or Darwin to London, is equivalent and that course is presently being taken a gander at.

“The airline is investigating using Darwin as a transit point, which has been Qantas’ main entry for repatriation flights, as an alternative – or in addition – to its existing Perth hub given conservative border policies in Western Australia,” Qantas said in a statement.

Yet, Mr McGowan said his state was being “punished” for its extreme position in keeping COVID-19 out.

“All of the income we produce … the revenue we produce for the Commonwealth government is keeping Australia alive, we shouldn’t be punished for that,” Mr McGowan said yesterday.

“All I’d say to Qantas … as a state, we funded the Perth-London flights.

“We put in place $15 million worth of improvement at the terminal. [Qantas] need to show some understanding and perhaps some gratitude to what the state government has done.”

Qantas CEO Alan Joyce says the carrier was prepared to launch international flights once vaccination rates in Australia arrive at 80%, due to occur in December.