Australian airline Qantas will finally launch the long-awaited non-stop ultra-long Sunrise Projectfrom Sydney and Melbourne, Australia, to London, New York and Paris from mid-2025.
The news was revealed by sources to the Reuters this Sunday, May 1, and the company is expected to officially announce on Monday, 2, its ambitious “Project Sunrise” flights, in addition to an order for a fleet of twelve ultra-long-range Airbus A350 jets.
Qantas will hold a press conference to “make a significant announcement on the future shape of its flight network”, with the venue already set, at the airline’s Hangar 96 at Sydney Airport.
The Airbus A350-1000, registration F-WMIL, was sent this Sunday by Airbus from its headquarters in Toulouse, France, to Perth, Australia, on flight AIB-151, which lasted 16 hours.
The jet operated adorned with Qantas logos, a slogan of “Our spirit flies further” and the words “#LongRangeLeader” (Long Range Leader). This jet will likely be parked inside Hangar 96 on Monday.
Follow the #Airbus A350-1000 F-WMIL in direct flight from Toulouse (France) to Perth (#Australia) for a demonstration flight of the #ProjectSunrise with @flightradar24 . 🇦🇺 🌅 #Qantas
-> https://t.co/6wrNTQzJsr pic.twitter.com/EHX08pUg8j— Aviation Toulouse (@Frenchpainter) April 30, 2022
To tackle the 18-20 hour direct flights – which will also rank as the longest flights in the world, both in distance and time – Qantas will order a fleet of Airbus A350-1000 jets in a special ‘ultra-long-range’ version. designed specifically for the airline.
Before the pandemic, in 2019, the company had already carried out some flights on the routes, with Boeing 787-9 planes, to test the feasibility and learn about the particularities of the operation.
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