A non-stop flight between London and has long been seen as the holy grail of air travel. It is a fair description too – not in the sense of a sacred cup, but in that, for as long as humanity has enjoyed the luxury of the jet engine, a direct service between these two great cities on opposite sides of the planet has been both hugely desired and out of reach. That magic moment is finally coming, just a little later than previously hoped.
It was announced this week that Qantas is on course for introducing non-stop Sydney/Melbourne to London flights in 2026. The launch date of 2025 was shelved because manufacturing delays mean the ultra-long-haul Airbus A350-1000 jets needed by Qantas will not be delivered until the middle of 2026. Australia’s national carrier Qantas first declared that it was aiming to break through what might be described as the final frontier of commercial air travel back in 2017.
It later named the plan, somewhat grandiosely, “Project Sunrise”. But this is not a lily that needs gilding. This is the very real promise of something that has always been beyond the scope of existing technology.
And it is not just about London-to-Sydney. Direct connections between London and Melbourne – and between both Australian cities and New York – are also on the agenda. Last year, Qantas released images of the cabins that will welcome passengers on the route’s carefully configured aircraft (more details on this below).
And while a few glossy promotional photographs are not quite the same thing as wheels on the runway and pilots in the cockpit, they were evidence that “Project Sunrise” is indeed progressing. What else do we know about these ground-breaking flights? Read on to find out. Qantas, which had previously made vague references to a launch date of “late 2025”, has pushed that back by six months to “mid 2026”.
The airline is still waiting for the custom-built A350-1000s – 12 of them in total – that it ordered in 2022, but an issue with the fuel tanks (quite important when you’re flying 11,000 miles non-stop) has caused the delay. “The regulator has asked us to redesign the centre tank on the ultra-long-range airplane for Sunrise,” Christian Scherer, the CEO of Airbus’s commercial aircraft business, told reporters at the Singapore Airshow. “We have to redesign the centre tank, the extra fuel tank, that will allow the Sunrise mission, and that’s what explains the shift.
” Indeed. Qantas first used it in November 2019, when . Of course, the term “Covid-19” also popped up around then, and the remarkable achievement of unbroken motion between said two cities quickly faded into relative insignificance.
But it was quite the achievement nonetheless, even with the caveat that the plane in question – a Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner – would not have been able to reach its destination in normal conditions. To ensure that it , it was carrying only 50 people. When it landed, it had enough fuel left for a further one hour and 45 minutes of travel; a buffer that would have been exhausted had the 787-9 been filled to its standard capacity of 290 passengers.
The 2nd flight has just departed London for Sydney. is planned to take 19 hr 18 min. Takeoff weight: 231,920 kg Fuel: 100,000 kg (not quite full tanks) Flight plan: 49 waypoints between London and Sydney Follow live at — Flightradar24 (@flightradar24) Despite conducting its research with the Dreamliner, Qantas commissioned Airbus to help make Project Sunrise a reality.
The A350-1000 is not a new plane. It had its first test flight in November 2016, and entered commercial service as part of the Qatar Airways fleet in February 2018. The existing version has a maximum range of 10,004 miles – which isn’t enough for a journey from London to Sydney without stopping on the way.
Qantas’s incoming next-gen models will push the limit with that aforementioned extra fuel tank. Yes. And it will break the previous record by a considerable chalk.
At time of writing, is the regular service between Singapore and New York JFK operated by Singapore Airlines. This clocks in at 9,537 miles. Although flight paths can vary (more on this below), the Qantas test flight from London to Sydney was measured at 11,030 miles.
A direct connection between New York and Sydney would eclipse Singapore Airlines’ current wanderings as well. Qantas also trialled this route in (October) 2019, arcing across the width of the American torso to California, then arrowing south-west across the Pacific, passing just below Hawaii en route to home soil. This particular jaunt amounted to 10,200 miles – in just over 19 hours.
Good question. As ever, the devil will be in the financial details, but travelling from London to Sydney without pausing is unlikely to be a low-cost experience. At least, not until market forces work their magic.
Qantas has – not wholly unsurprisingly, when we are more than three years away from the inaugural flight, and in the midst of stubbornly uncertain times – released any prices. But the service will guarantee its economic viability – and, crucially, that the aircraft will be able to complete the journey in one go – by paring back passenger numbers. That means more space for premium travellers, and the bigger profit margins they provide.
Indeed. Qantas initially revealed that its ULR (Ultra-Long-Range) A350-1000s will have six first-class suites, each with a separate bed, a “recliner lounge chair” and a wardrobe. These details were updated last year with the announcement that the first-class suites will have an extra-wide fixed bed, a dining table for two, and an ultra-high-definition television.
There will also be 52 business suites (the largest passenger section by meterage), each with a two-metre flatbed, a cushioned ottoman, a dining table and a high-definition TV. There will also be a premium economy cabin of 40 seats. In total, the A350-1000s will carry 238 passengers – which means a 140-seat economy cabin at the other end of the plane.
How much it will cost to sit there is still a secret. For reference, a standard A350-1000 can have up to 410 seats. Another good question.
Yes, it does. It launched a direct link between Perth and London in March 2018. Inevitably, as with much of the Qantas schedule, it took a Covid-related sabbatical, but it has been back in the skies since May 2022.
It is a tribute to the size of the Australian landmass that a direct flight from London to the country’s only major city on the Indian Ocean is not quite the rare feat that the non-stop Heathrow-Sydney service will be. Perth’s position way out west (as the capital of Western Australia) shortens the distance to “just” 9,009 miles – and an in-air time of about 18 hours. Qantas has been able to run the route using Boeing 787s.
However, the announcement of the non-stop London-Sydney service has cast doubt over the necessity for a direct equivalent from Perth. Ben Harvey – a broadcaster and journalist for – offered a forthright and somewhat indelicate opinion on the matter in 2022. “There’s gonna be f*** all Londoners who want to come to Perth instead of Sydney,” he ventured.
“The Poms have two choices. Fly to Perth, and then go four or five hours on a flight to the east coast, because that’s where the cool stuff is. Or fly direct to the cool stuff.
” Qantas’s accounts team are unlikely to phrase it so crudely, or in words which disparage Perth so unfairly, but this thought may be percolating. It won’t. Airlines and their passengers fall out regularly over long delays, lost baggage, cancelled services and missed connections, but crashing your customers into the ground because you haven’t put enough gas in the tank is generally seen as a PR no-no.
Planes always take off with a reasonable amount of “spare” fuel, in case of extreme weather, heavy head-winds, traffic congestion at the destination, or any other issues which might unduly delay an arrival – and airlines also have stop-gap airports on hand should the situation become dangerous. At present, Qantas’s standard Sydney-Heathrow flight pauses in Singapore as a matter of course. It is likely that a similar arrangement will be built into the non-stop service, in case of emergencies.
Ah yes, the good questions keep coming. In short, being cooped up in a small space for that length of time isn’t ideal, and can only exacerbate the traditional health risks of long-haul flight (for example, the threat of deep-vein thrombosis). Qantas has said that seats on its London-bound A350-1000s will be pitched at 33 inches in economy (and 40 inches in premium economy), which is marginally bigger than normal (the industry standard tends to be 31-32 inches).
But anyone opting for such a long journey will need to pay particular attention to the usual self-help measures – regular “breaks” to stretch and walk around the cabin, plenty of water etc. Qantas has also revealed that its next generation of London-bound planes will have “a dedicated Wellbeing Zone designed for movement, stretching and hydration” – which will make a difference. This will offer “stretch handles”, embedded in the panels, which will allow travellers to loosen their limbs after a few hours in their seats.
It will also come with TV screens playing exercise routines, a water station, and a range of refreshments. Images released last year confirmed that the Wellbeing Zone will be located between the premium economy and economy cabins – meaning that it will be accessible to all passengers. The airline is certainly pleased with the idea – claiming that it will be the first airline to offer a dedicated wellbeing area.
“We have spent just as much time on the second half of the aircraft as we did the front,” said then Qantas CEO Alan Joyce. “In fact, we started studies on the Wellbeing Zone before any other area of the A350.” “The new Project Sunrise flights have given us the opportunity to re-think long-haul travel in its entirety, from aircraft cabin design to what ingredients we include on the inflight menu.
” Of course, it is not only the impact on passengers which needs to be considered. Asked about her experience after she had landed, Captain Helen Trennery – who piloted the test flight between London and Sydney in November 2019 – had a few suggestions regarding the safety of future ultra-long-haul flights. She said she would be comfortable with flying the non-stop London-Sydney route, but recommended that pilots only take on such jobs once a month, as “they will be very, very long flights, and fatiguing over the long term.
” Popular wisdom has it that a non-stop flight is better for the environment, as the greatest surge of fuel use is during departure. On this basis, one take-off means a lower level of emissions than two. However, there are concerns that a flight of the distance of London to Sydney negates any such “benefits”.
Speaking to in 2022, Dr Tony Webber – a former chief economist at Qantas, now based at the aviation school at the University of New South Wales – argued that non-stop UK-Australia flights may actually be less fuel efficient than those which pause en route. “It’s true that reducing four movements – a take off and landing for each leg – means less fuel is burned,” he said. “But for a plane to stay in the air for 20 hours without refuelling means [it is] carrying an enormous amount of fuel.
That extra fuel is extra weight, which in turn means you’ve got to burn more fuel overall to carry it. It’s a real inefficiency compared with flights that can carry less and refuel at a stop-over.” A standard return flight to Sydney from London, with a break in Singapore, emits around 3,500kg of CO2 per passenger.
Qantas says that its ULR A350-1000s will be 25 per cent more fuel-efficient than previous aircraft models. The technical answer is “yes and no”. Shortly after the war erupted in 2022, Remco Steenbergen, the chief financial officer of Lufthansa, said that Germany’s national carrier would need to raise flight prices to offset the extra cost of flying around Russian and Ukrainian airspace to reach the Far East.
Whether a similar diversion would increase the cost – but crucially, also the distance – of a direct Qantas service is unclear. The conflict have made a difference to the 2019 test flight, which picked a path across Russia, before turning south-east over Kazakhstan, China and the Philippines. If Qantas retains its ties with Emirates and Dubai, including in its flight paths, it will be less of a problem.
As will be the case for anyone settling into economy for 20 hours, it’s a matter of “wait and see”. The Wright brothers’ changed the world 119 years ago, but, at first, only for 12 seconds. The planet’s first commercial air service was a short hop on a small section of Florida’s west coast, between St Petersburg and Tampa – operated by forward-thinking early aviator Tony Jannus and his “flying boat”, as “The St Petersburg-Tampa Airboat Line”.
For all its rewriting of the travel rules, it was only a partial success. It lasted four months. Pan American Airways, founded in 1927, makes a big splash in the burgeoning world of continental air-boat travel.
Using its new Sikorsky S-42 plane, it adds a record-breaking Brazilian leg – between Recife and Sao Luiz – to its overall route between Miami and Rio. Pan Am again, with the first long leap into the Pacific; a Martin M-130 flying boat, carrying just seven passengers – crossing from San Francisco to Pearl Harbour in Hawaii. Qantas enters the fray with its “Double Sunrise” service between Perth and Koggala in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) – part of the preservation of the air-link to Britain during the war.
Pan Am re-takes the record with a service between Honolulu and Tokyo – using the state-of-the-art Boeing 377 Stratocruiser, with its twin passenger decks and pressurised cabin. Pan Am’s rival Trans World Airlines (TWA) ups the ante by flying a Lockheed L-1649A Starliner from LA to Heathrow via the North Pole, on September 29 – a trip of 5,456 miles. It ups it again on October 3 via a 5,593-mile odyssey from San Francisco to Paris.
Israel’s El Al sets a new benchmark with a connection between Tel Aviv and New York. Aerolineas Argentinas goes big with a non-stop flight between Buenos Aires and Madrid. Pan Am inaugurates the first non-stop service between North America and Australia, connecting San Francisco with Sydney across 13 hours of flying time – and a lot of ocean.
It will break it again, at a squeak, with a 7,488-mile Los Angeles-Sydney service in 1982. South African Airways connects New York and Johannesburg without pausing for petrol. The formal dissolution of the Soviet Union opens up the skies above Russia, ushering in a new era of long-haul flights, as technological leaps continue to facilitate greater distance.
Air Tahiti Nui is forced to think laterally as Covid-19 strikes. With the US border closed, it is denied its standard stop-off in Los Angeles, so starts flying its route between Papeete and Paris directly. The service only operates in the March and April, before the world grinds to a halt, but this is enough to eclipse the then- (and once again current-) world record – the Singapore Airlines odyssey between Singapore and New York (9,537 miles).
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