Qantas has unveiled plans to make London the first destination for what will be the world’s longest non-stop commercial flight. This ambitious journey, a direct route from Sydney, will take approximately 20 hours and do away with the traditional layover on the iconic “Kangaroo Route”.
The airline’s Chief Executive, Vanessa Hudson, revealed at an event in Toulouse, France, that ticket sales are expected to begin in February, with the inaugural flights scheduled for October 2027.
These flights form a key part of Qantas’s “Project Sunrise” initiative. Under this project, the airline also aims to establish a direct route to New York, utilizing specially adapted Airbus A350-1000ULR aircraft. These planes are engineered to undertake flights lasting up to 22 hours, with seating arrangements for 238 passengers.
The aircraft will feature four classes of service—First Class, Business, Premium Economy, and Economy. Each plane will be equipped with an additional 20,000-litre fuel tank, enabling it to traverse distances exceeding 16,000 kilometers non-stop for up to 22 hours.
This announcement is a significant milestone in Qantas’s ongoing fleet modernization efforts, a journey that began back in 2017. At that time, the airline issued a challenge to aerospace giants Airbus and Boeing to craft aircraft capable of supporting ultra-long-haul, non-stop routes originating from Australia.
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“Australia’s distance from the rest of the world should never stand in the way,” Hudson said, before unveiling one of the modified Airbus jets, fresh from the paint shop and yet to have its Rolls-Royce XWB-97 engines installed.
Qantas named Project Sunrise after the airline’s double sunrise endurance flights during World War II, which remained airborne long enough to see two sunrises.
The aim is to cut what was once a five-day trek on the “Kangaroo Route” to London to a single hop of 19 to 21 hours, depending on routing and winds.
Qantas will use polar routes about a quarter of the time, especially during the northern hemisphere winter.
The trip now takes 24 to 25 hours via Singapore.
It is a major gamble for Qantas, involving billions of dollars in aircraft, cabin upgrades and research into passenger health on ultra-long flights.
To succeed it must convince travellers to pay more to avoid layovers, while minimising the discomfort from long flights.
Qantas has participated in academic research on jet lag, exercise, hydration, lighting and meal times, Hudson said.
“What they are selling is time, and they absolutely need to get a premium on all the cabins, particularly business and premium economy,” aviation analyst John Strickland said.
Hudson said Qantas hopes to replicate the roughly 20 per cent premium it has achieved across all four cabins on Perth-London flights versus one-stop routes.
Qantas has temporarily rerouted the Perth-London service via Singapore because of disruption in Middle East airspace.
“We will return our network to where it was before the war when things settle down,” Hudson said, without giving a timeframe.
Qantas has estimated Project Sunrise could add more than $A400 million a year to earnings.
Jefferies analysts have said they expect a positive market for Project Sunrise flights to London.
Gulf carriers such as Emirates, which redrew the aviation map around their hubs, are expected to defend their market share.
Australia on Wednesday lifted a months-long “do not travel” warning on Gulf hubs that had invalidated most travel insurance policies even for transit passengers.
Airbus won the Project Sunrise order in 2019 after an intense battle with Boeing’s 777X.
Earlier this month, Airbus carried out the first test flight for one of 12 modified A350-1000ULR planes ordered by Qantas.
The 238-seat planes feature an extra rear-centre fuel tank helping to increase the range by 1852km.
Flights are so long that much of the fuel is used merely to carry the weight of the remaining fuel.
Half of the 12 new jets will serve the ultra-long-haul London and New York markets.
The rest may replace Boeing 787s on other long routes such as Perth-London or Auckland-New York, freeing those aircraft to open new routes, Hudson said.
The first aircraft is due for delivery in April 2027, about five years later than originally expected due to the COVID-19 pandemic and supply chain delays.
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