Twenty-two hours of flight and sixteen thousand kilometres, all without stopping. These are the numbers of the connection that Qantas has just made official between Sydney and London Heathrow, the first piece of Project Sunrise, the program with which the Australian company has aimed for years at overcoming what in Sydney they call “the tyranny of distance”. The debut is set for October 2027, tickets will go on sale starting from February of the same year.
From the Kangaroo Route to non-stop flights
The announcement came from Toulouse, where Airbus unveiled the first A350-1000ULR painted in the carrier’s colours. It will be the first time that the Kangaroo Route, the historic heritage route between Australia and the United Kingdom, will be traveled non-stop starting from the east coast of Australia. Qantas has been flying between Sydney and London since 1947, when the journey took four days and seven stops, in Darwin, Singapore, Calcutta, Karachi, Cairo, Castel Benito and Rome.
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The longest scheduled flight in the world
The direct route will become the longest scheduled flight in the world, lasting up to 22 hours, and will displace Singapore Airlines’ Singapore-New York from the record, which is stuck at just under nineteen. Compared to current connections with an airport, the non-stop will cut up to four hours of travel. The existing alternative, the QF1 with a stop in Singapore, today requires around twenty-five hours in total.
A custom-built aircraft
That a plane could cover such a distance with a full load of passengers was not at all a given. No commercial jet in service today is capable of flying those routes: in 2019 Qantas carried out test flights with minimally loaded Boeing 787s to demonstrate its feasibility. The A350-1000ULR was built specifically for Project Sunrise, with an additional 20,000 liter fuel tank allowing it to travel over 16,000 kilometers and stay aloft for up to 22 hours. Qantas will receive twelve in total, each configured with 238 seats spread across four classes, a much lower density than normal, designed to make almost an entire day bearable.
Five years late
The program did not arrive at the appointment unscathed, given that the delivery of the first aircraft took place five years late, amidst the impacts of Covid and problems in the supply chains. A second example is already undergoing testing and certification, following the first flight carried out at the beginning of the month.
The words of CEO Hudson
These are the words of Vanessa Hudson, CEO of the Qantas Group:
Qantas was born from the belief that Australia’s distance from the rest of the world should never be an obstacle. The pioneering spirit of generations of our people has blazed a trail ever since, and today we take the most significant step in this mission in our 105-year history. Since we first flew the Kangaroo Route in 1947, with seven stopovers on the way to London, each generation of planes has knocked a stop off the route. Today, we eliminate the last one. In 2017 we committed to Qantas conquering the final frontier of long-haul air travel and directly connecting the east coast of Australia to London, something that had never been possible before. From October 2027, this promise will become reality.”
The reason for the name, moreover, looks to the past, because Project Sunrise recalls the “double sunrise” resistance flights of the Second World War, long enough to see the sun rise twice.
After London, New York
London will lead the way, but it will not remain alone, given that the second route will be Sydney-New York JFK, expected during 2027, with a date that Qantas will confirm at the beginning of the year. The issues that most closely concern those who will have to buy those tickets remain to be resolved, i.e. timetables, frequencies and above all the tariffs that will be applied.
