Operational reasons it may have been, but I bet nowhere today has QFi admitted that it's a long time before MEL will see nonstop flights from this airline to LHR and JFK.
Many readers/viewers of print/online media or TV news viewers will automatically believe 'goodness, there'll be nonstops to those two destinations from Melbourne Airport' when this clearly ain't so in 2027.
It's insulting to what will in a few short years be Australia's largest city by population to have had previous suggestions MEL will be 'on the map' when clearly it isn't at this stage, if ever. Air Sydney it is.
And it begs the question: the route is LHR-SYD so why not make that the first test, travelling at similar or identical times to what the timetable will be? QFi must have a very good idea if it is, for instance, to be a c.0800 hours LHR departure. Much less fuel would have been burnt on the ground in Toulouse prior to take off compared to waiting in a queue at Heathrow.
Talk about over-hyping and under delivering for Melbourne!