Inside a hangar at Airbus’s Toulouse factory, the fuselage of a jet that could reshape long-haul travel is taking shape. It is the first of 12 Airbus A350-1000ULR aircraft ordered by Qantas, and it is purpose-built for a single ambitious goal: flying passengers nonstop from Sydney to London and Sydney to New York, journeys of roughly 17,000 kilometers that will keep travelers airborne for about 22 hours.
Qantas calls the program Project Sunrise, a nod to the fact that passengers will see two sunrises during a single flight. The airline expects to take delivery of the first aircraft by late 2026 and begin commercial service in the first half of 2027, according to its most recent investor communications. If the timeline holds, it will mark the first time a scheduled airline has operated regular nonstop flights between Australia and either the United Kingdom or the U.S. East Coast.
From concept to assembly line
Project Sunrise has been in development for years. Qantas conducted three research flights in late 2019, sending Boeing 787-9 jets nonstop from New York to Sydney and London to Sydney with reduced passenger loads to test crew fatigue, passenger well-being, and fuel burn. Researchers from the University of Sydney and Monash University monitored volunteers on board, collecting data on sleep patterns, cognitive function, and physical health.
The research flights validated the concept, but the pandemic delayed the next step. Qantas finally placed a firm order for 12 A350-1000 aircraft with Airbus in May 2022, part of a broader fleet renewal worth billions of dollars that also included A220-300s for domestic routes and A321XLRs for medium-haul flying. Airbus confirmed the order publicly, describing the A350-1000ULR variant as enabling “the world’s longest flights.”
By late 2025, Qantas released official images showing the first airframe under assembly in Toulouse, a signal that the program had moved from contract to metal. The photos showed recognizable A350 fuselage sections being joined, a milestone that typically places an aircraft 12 to 18 months from delivery.
What the aircraft will look like inside
The A350-1000ULR is not simply a standard A350-1000 with extra fuel tanks. Airbus has modified the aircraft’s structure and systems to carry additional fuel while maintaining range and payload. The jet is powered by two Rolls-Royce Trent XWB-97 engines, the same powerplant used on the standard A350-1000 but paired here with the extended fuel capacity needed for 22-hour sectors.
Qantas has said the aircraft will carry approximately 238 passengers in four classes, significantly fewer than the 350-plus seats some carriers fit into the standard A350-1000. The lower density reflects a deliberate bet on premium demand. The cabin will include first class, business class, premium economy, and economy, along with a dedicated wellness zone where passengers can stretch, move, and decompress during the flight. Qantas has released renders showing this space but has not yet published final specifications.
The reduced seat count is central to the economics of the operation. Fewer passengers means less ticket revenue per flight, so Qantas needs to command higher average fares to make the route profitable. The airline is banking on strong demand from business travelers and premium leisure passengers who place a high value on eliminating the traditional stopover in Singapore, Dubai, or Doha.
How it compares to existing ultra-long-haul flights
Project Sunrise will not be the first ultra-long-haul service in the world, but it will push the boundaries further than any current operation. Singapore Airlines already flies nonstop from Singapore to New York’s JFK, a journey of about 15,350 kilometers that takes roughly 18.5 hours on an A350-900ULR. That route, relaunched in 2018, demonstrated that a market exists for passengers willing to pay a premium to avoid connections.
The Qantas flights would be longer by a significant margin. Sydney to London covers approximately 17,016 kilometers by great-circle distance, and Sydney to New York is roughly 16,200 kilometers, both exceeding the Singapore Airlines benchmark. Block times of 21 to 22 hours would make them the longest scheduled commercial flights ever operated.
For Australian travelers, the practical difference is substantial. A typical Sydney-to-London itinerary today involves a stop in Southeast Asia or the Middle East, adding three to five hours of transit time plus the disruption of deplaning, clearing a transfer terminal, and boarding again. Qantas is betting that enough passengers, particularly those flying in premium cabins, will pay to skip that process entirely.
Unresolved questions
Several significant unknowns remain as of May 2026. The end-of-2026 delivery target and early-2027 service launch are Qantas projections, not regulatory commitments. Aircraft programs routinely encounter delays tied to supplier bottlenecks, testing requirements, or certification hurdles. Qantas originally explored launching Project Sunrise before the pandemic, and the timeline has shifted more than once already.
Regulatory approval is the final gate. No civil aviation authority, whether Australia’s CASA, the UK’s CAA, or the U.S. FAA, has published route-specific approvals or certification milestones for 22-hour commercial operations. Crew duty time limits, emergency diversion planning, and any configuration-specific requirements for the ULR variant all need sign-off before the first revenue flight can depart.
Route-level economics are also opaque. Qantas has not disclosed expected frequencies, fare structures, or yield targets for either the London or New York service. Operating an aircraft for 22 continuous hours burns substantially more fuel per rotation than a conventional long-haul segment, and the payload trade-off required to carry that fuel changes the revenue math. Without access to the airline’s internal modeling, outside analysts can only estimate viability based on general trends in premium long-haul demand.
Passenger health over flights exceeding 20 hours will draw scrutiny as well. The 2019 research flights produced data that Qantas has cited in broad terms, but detailed clinical findings have not been published in peer-reviewed journals. The wellness zone and cabin design features are intended to mitigate fatigue and reduce deep-vein thrombosis risk, but their measured effectiveness on paying passengers flying full commercial loads remains untested.
Environmental impact is another pressure point. Even on the fuel-efficient A350 platform, a 17,000-kilometer nonstop flight produces significant carbon emissions. Qantas has committed to net-zero emissions by 2050 as part of its broader sustainability targets, but the airline has not detailed how Project Sunrise routes specifically will be decarbonized, whether through sustainable aviation fuel, carbon offsets, or other mechanisms. Critics will note that a one-stop itinerary using smaller, lighter aircraft on each leg can sometimes produce lower total emissions than a single ultra-long-haul sector flown by a heavily fueled widebody.
What the next 12 months will reveal
The period between now and mid-2027 will determine whether Project Sunrise transitions from a well-funded ambition into a functioning airline operation. The milestones to watch are specific: delivery of the first A350-1000ULR to Qantas, completion of route proving flights, regulatory certification of crew duty schemes for 22-hour sectors, and the publication of schedules and fares.
If Qantas hits its targets, Sydney to London and Sydney to New York will become the longest nonstop commercial flights in the world, a distinction that carries marketing power but also operational risk. Every element of the service, from catering logistics to crew rest rotations to diversion airport planning, must work reliably at a scale and duration that no airline has attempted on a sustained commercial basis.
For now, the strongest evidence of progress is sitting in that Toulouse hangar: a real airframe, not a rendering, being assembled for an airline that has staked significant capital and corporate reputation on making 22-hour flying a routine part of global aviation. Whether passengers ultimately embrace the marathon flight or stick with the familiar stopover will be answered not by press releases but by booking data, once the first Project Sunrise departure board lights up at Sydney’s Kingsford Smith Airport.
More from Morning Overview
*This article was researched with the help of AI, with human editors creating the final content.
