Qantas will officially debut the world’s first direct services between Sydney and London from October 2027, removing up to four hours of travel time.
“Since we first flew the Kangaroo Route in 1947, where we stopped seven times (Darwin, Singapore, Calcutta, Karachi, Cairo, Castel Benito and Rome) on the way to London, every generation of aircraft has taken a stop out of the journey. Today, we're taking out the last one,” said Qantas Group CEO Vanessa Hudson.
The direct flights are part of the Australia national carrier’s long-term project dubbed Project Sunrise, to “conquer the final frontier of long-haul aviation”.
A fleet of A350-1000ULR has been specifically manufactured for this journey. These are fitted with an additional 20,000-litre fuel tank that enables the aircraft to fly more than 16,000 kilometres, for up to 22 hours non-stop.
Qantas will take delivery of 12 aircraft in total, each configured with 238 seats across four cabins.
Pilots have commenced training on Australia’s first A350 simulator in Sydney and with British Airways in the UK. Over the coming months, some of its pilots will also fly with Cathay Pacific in Hong Kong.
Additionally, to improve the long-haul flying experience for its direct Australia to London and New York flights, Qantas announced the addition of a wellbeing zone for this incoming fleet, earlier in April this year.
These ultra long-haul services will operate alongside Qantas’ existing Perth-London and Sydney-Singapore-London services.
Qantas added that new data point to Australians' continued appetite for direct, ultra long-haul flying, with intent to book rising from 58% to 70% since February this year. Among premium travellers, that figure reaches 80%, up 12 percentage points over the same period.
Project Sunrise will eventually connect Australia’s east coast with other international destinations, with Sydney-New York confirmed as the next service to follow Sydney-London. Launch timing for these services will be announced next year.
Sales for the Project Sunrise Sydney to London services will go on sale in February 2027.