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Qantas’ Project Sunrise is aiming to launch in 2027, with the first specially-modified A350-1000 now not due to arrive until late next year.
Speaking to media in Hamburg, Qantas CEO Vanessa Hudson confirmed that the Airbus planes, which will have extra fuel tanks to give them the range to reach London and New York from Australia’s east coast without refuelling, will arrive “at the end of 2026”.
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The Project Sunrise aircraft were meant for delivery starting at the end of this year before being last year pushed back to mid-2026 due to Airbus “manufacturing delays”.
The first A350-1000 services will likely be to New Zealand for training purposes, with Qantas not yet revealing whether London or New York will see the initial ultra-long-haul non-stop flights.
“You need about three aircraft to provide a daily service on a route like Sydney-London or Sydney-New York, so that’ll actually start in the first half of 2027 when we have those three aircraft,” Hudson told Executive Traveller.
“We’ll be doing lots of training with our pilots and our cabin crew. So to do that, we will have that first aircraft probably flying on the Tasman to New Zealand, where it gives us a little bit of time to stretch its legs, but not too far.”
The London service may also pass over the North Pole at times, a route that would allow the A350-1000 to skirt Russian airspace, which is currently closed to Western carriers due to the ongoing war in Ukraine.
According to Hudson, geopolitics is “part of any operational consideration”.
“The really unique thing about this flight is that at some times of the year, the fastest way to get from Sydney to London will be over Japan and over the North Pole and down the other side because of the wind direction,” she told The Independent.
“Our pilots are doing lots of flight planning for that flight. They’ve got over 12 months’ worth of wind data and are doing lots of flight-planning simulations.
“Don’t just assume that you have to fly west [from Sydney to London] all the time – there will be other routes that we can take.”
Hudson also noted that passengers should expect to pay roughly a 20 per cent premium for the non-stop service compared to Qantas’ existing Sydney-London flights via Singapore or Perth.
“There are absolutely customers who say, ‘I value getting there in one stop, I value point to point, I value the premium experience, and I’m prepared to pay for that,” she said.
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says:The announcement of “Project Sunrise” and the subsequent publicity flight ex JFK was no doubt a huge boost to the QF brand which is still enjoyed today and yes, Airbus and QF can do it, a bit later than planned unfortunately but, will it work? Operationally, have Tech and Cabin crew numbers been agreed upon- I mean we are looking at duty times of about 23-24Hrs, maybe more!? Commercially, my thinking is the decision was from the heart not the head. SQ ops direct to LHR and JFK, the two main financial hubs of the world (SIN being the 3rd), how do we in Oz fit in there? so, we are mainly looking at leisure traffic with a smidgen of business and mostly governmental folks, all premium fares, again similar to SQ. We are now looking seriously at the back of the bus and this is where a potential problem will arise. Yes initially there will be the got to do it for experience traveller and yes there will be the urgent passenger travel needs to be catered for but you now have to ask yourself, would you pay 20% more as a “penalty” for sitting in an economy seat of minimal pitch and suffer reduced cabin service and amenities for that extended period of time? In the longer term, I think not. If one will have to pay a 20% increase in the fare that can only mean that the original “sums” were wrong. An aircraft seating about 100 persons or more less than it’s capacity to me, indicates there is a problem at the planning stage, .oops. I recommend that the ECY zone be reconfigured with Premium seating, cut out the 20% penalty and you might be lucky to make the project pay but to me the “ONE stop” option/s are by far a better option.