Qantas to launch non-stop Sydney-London, New York flights by 2025

After five years of planning, Qantas said it was ordering 12 Airbus A350-1000 aircraft to operate its ‘Project Sunrise’ flights

The flights had been set to launch this year, but pandemic delays pushed back plans for what the airline calls ‘the final fix for the tyranny of distance’

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A Qantas aircraft lands at Sydney after a non-stop test flight from New York in 2019.
Photo James D Morgan/New Zealand Herald

Published: 9:06am, 2 May 2022Updated: 10:24am, 2 May 2022

Qantas announced on Monday it will launch the world’s longest non-stop commercial flight, with passengers set to spend 19 hours in the air travelling from Australia to London by the end of 2025.

After five years of planning, the airline said it was ordering 12 Airbus A350-1000 aircraft to operate the “Project Sunrise” flights to cities including London and New York.

Non-stop flights will start from Sydney by the end of 2025, it said, with the long-haul flights later planned to include Melbourne.

Qantas chairman Alan Joyce said Project Sunrise will make “any city just one flight away from Australia”. Photo: Bloomberg

“New types of aircraft make new things possible,” said Qantas chairman Alan Joyce, according to a statement. “The A350 and Project Sunrise will make any city just one flight away from Australia … It’s the final frontier and the final fix for the tyranny of distance.”

Qantas operated research flights for the long-haul flights in 2019, including a trial London-Sydney flight of 17,750 kilometres (11,030 miles), which took 19 hours and 19 minutes. A trial New York-Sydney flight in the same year covered 16,200 kilometres (10,200 miles) and took a little over 19 hours.

Singapore Airlines currently operates the world’s longest non-stop commercial flight from Singapore to New York, clocking in a time of about 19 hours.

Qantas already operates a 14,498-kilometre Perth-London trip that takes 17 hours.

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