Qantas has announced the takeoff of a marathon world-first flight from later this year.

The airline – which announced a first-half underlying pre-tax profit of $1.5 billion on Thursday – is also poised to become the first in the world to operate a non-stop route between Australia and Las Vegas.

Qantas said its new Sydney-Las Vegas service would save customers up to five hours in travel time by eliminating the need for connections through another US city. The seasonal flights will begin on December 29 and run until March 2027.

“Australians’ appetite for international travel continues to be incredibly strong,” Qantas International CEO Cam Wallace said.

“Rome and Sapporo have shown us there’s real demand for seasonal services to destinations people want to visit at certain times of year, and we’re continuing to expand those direct connections around the world.”

The national carrier will operate on a Boeing 787 Dreamliner on the near 14-hour flight that will take off on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays. It will depart Sydney at 9pm and arrive in Las Vegas just before 4pm, local time.

“Our historic fleet renewal is giving us the flexibility to deploy aircraft where we see demand, opening up route possibilities that simply weren’t there before,” Wallace said.

“Las Vegas becomes our 101st destination and is a great example of how we’re using that capability. This growth also creates real opportunities for our people, particularly our pilots and cabin crew, as we expand where we fly.”

The new flights mean Las Vegas becomes Qantas’s eighth city across North and South America, joining Los Angeles, San Francisco, Honolulu, Dallas, New York, Vancouver and Santiago.

It gives Qantas passengers direct access to evens such as the Consumer Electronics Show, the world’s largest and most influential tech show. It also comes as Vegas hosts the National Rugby League’s annual season kick-off on Thursday (local time).

Qantas has partnered with the NRL on charter flights from the east coast to Las Vegas for the past two years, to get fans to games.  Flights took off for the third year this week, and are fully booked.

The flying kangaroo has also announced it will return up to $450 million to investors after reporting a lift in interim earnings as it eyes ways to offset higher airport fees. Its $1.5 billion first-half pre-tax profit was up about 5 per cent on the prior corresponding period.

The airline’s bottom-line result was relatively flat at $925 million for the six months ended December on revenue of $12.9 billion, which grew just over 6 per cent.

The flow of money will add to an increased interim dividend for shareholders totalling $300 million, or 19.8 cents a share – a 20 per cent increase.

Qantas group chief executive Vanessa Hudson described the carrier’s first-half performance as strong despite cost increases.

“We have seen a sharp increase in some costs like airport charges and government fees, which have increased at double the rate of inflation over the past 12 months,” she said.

“We are offsetting these where possible, through transformation, and we’re working across the industry to address what can be done to ensure this doesn’t impact the ongoing affordability of air travel in this country.”

The Qantas and Jetstar domestic businesses continued to record growth in travel demand and delivered underlying earnings before interest and tax of $1.1 billion.

International and freight earnings fell six per cent to $463 million.

Qantas is forecasting continued strong travel demand across its business.

The domestic operations are tipped to generate a 3 per cent rise in revenue in the second half, while the international arm is heading for a 1-3 per cent increase.

-with AAP