In order to fly from SYD to IAH, it is necessary to have an ETOPS 240 rating for both the aircraft and the airline. With headwinds, it might require ETOPS 330. QANTAS wants to be able to fly to DFW, because that would allow their
One World partner American Airlines to feed passengers from most cites in the middle of the US and east of the Mississippi with just one connecting flight. Currently lots of those cities require two connections before transfering to QANTAS at LAX. DFW also has advantages that it has lots of available capacity compared to LAX, and it has a brand new international terminal with rather light traffic. If the Bermuda II treaty prohibiting flights between LHR and ATL, IAH, and DFW were dissolved, British Airways could code share with QANTAS between LHR and AKL via DFW. Currently they code share that route through LAX which is a close to capacity limits.
