Qantas rings the changes

It is all change on the Kangaroo Route.

From October 2027, QF1 and QF2 will fly Sydney to London non-stop for the first time as part of Project Sunrise, Qantas announced today.

The Kangaroo Route first began flying from Sydney to London in 1947, when the journey took four days and seven stops.

For almost 80 years, generations of Qantas aircraft, from the Lockheed Constellation to the Boeing 747 and Airbus A380, have brought Sydney and London closer together.

"Through it all, QF1 and QF2, our most iconic flight number pair, have long been associated with that journey and a key part of Qantas’ history," the airline said.

"In October 2027, that journey becomes non-stop with the launch of Project Sunrise, saving customers up to four hours in travel time compared to the existing service."

Project Sunrise flights will be operated by specially configured Airbus A350-1000ULR aircraft, fitted with an additional 20,000-litre fuel tank that enables the aircraft to fly more than 16,000 kilometres, and up to 22 hours non-stop.

Qantas will take delivery of 12 aircraft in total, each configured with 238 seats across four cabins. The first test aircraft is currently in the final stages of its flight test program and the first aircraft is expected to be delivered to Qantas in April next year.

Qantas’ existing Sydney to London via Singapore service will continue to operate with new flight numbers, QF5 and QF6, for customers who prefer a stopover.

The seasonal Qantas Perth-Rome services currently operating as QF5 and QF6 will move to QF105 and QF106.

Tickets for the direct Sydney-London service are scheduled to go on sale from February 2027.

Qantas sets date for non-stop Sydney-New York flights

Qantas has confirmed it will launch non-stop flights between Sydney and New York from mid-2028. 

It will be the first ever non-stop commercial service between Australia and the biggest city in the US, as part of the Australian flag carrier's Project Sunrise.

Tickets for the inaugural Sydney to New York service are set to go on sale from August 2027. 

The new flights will cut more than three hours off the total travel time compared with current one-stop services today, connecting Australia's east coast to New York without a stop for the first time in history.

New York is the second Project Sunrise route to be confirmed, following the Sydney to London non-stop flights that begin in October 2027.

Qantas first flew to New York in 1958, as part of its inaugural round-the-world service, reaching the biggest city in the US from Sydney via Fiji, Honolulu and San Francisco. Today the airline operates a daily one-stop service between Sydney and New York via Auckland.

The Project Sunrise flights will be operated by specially configured Airbus A350-1000ULR aircraft, fitted with an additional 20,000-litre fuel tank that enables the aircraft to fly more than 16,000 kilometres, and up to 22 hours non-stop. 

Qantas will take delivery of 12 aircraft in total, each configured with 238 seats across four cabins.

The first test aircraft is currently in the final stages of its flight test program, and recently completed a record-breaking non-stop 24 hour and 24 minute flight from Melbourne to Toulouse, a first for any commercial airliner in the world, Qantas said in a media release. 

The first aircraft is expected to be delivered to Qantas in April next year.

Qantas says demand for travel between Australia and the United States continues to grow, with visitor arrivals from the US up 5% year-on-year. 

Qantas Group CEO Vanessa Hudson said adding New York to Project Sunrise was a defining moment for Australia and the US.

“Conquering the tyranny of distance has been part of who Qantas is from the very beginning," Hudson said. 

"Reaching New York non-stop completes a vision we set out many years ago, and it's a moment of enormous pride for the thousands of our people who have been working hard to make Project Sunrise a reality.

“New York has always captured the imagination, and for generations, reaching it from Australia has meant breaking up the journey somewhere along the way. From 2028, our customers will be able to board in Sydney and arrive in New York around 18 hours later without stopping once, cutting around three hours off the current fastest travel time. That changes what's possible for travel between our two countries.

“Flying these distances is only worth doing if our customers arrive feeling their best, and that belief has shaped everything we've built. Over the past decade, working alongside experts, we've designed the aircraft and the onboard experience around the science of ultra long-haul travel, from the lighting to the meals to a world-first Wellbeing Zone. This is a fundamentally different way to fly."

Qantas unveils Project Sunrise details

 

Flying Sydney to London non stop. 

Not for me, thanks, but it is easy to see why Qantas' unveiling of its Project Sunrise program has created so much excitement. 

Qantas will launch its world-first non-stop services between Sydney and London from October 2027. 

The announcement came as the Australian national carrier unveiled its first Airbus A350-1000ULR in Qantas livery at Airbus’ manufacturing facility in Toulouse. 

Qantas has been flying between Sydney and London since 1947, when the original Kangaroo Route took four days with seven stops in Darwin, Singapore, Calcutta, Karachi, Cairo, Castel Benito and Rome. 

The new non-stop flights will cut up to four hours off the travel time compared to current one-stop services with a time of around 22 hours. These ultra long-haul services will operate alongside Qantas’ existing Perth-London and Sydney-Singapore-London services. 

The first Project Sunrise Sydney to London services will go on sale in February 2027, the airline says.

The A350-1000ULR has been specifically manufactured by Airbus for Project Sunrise, 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.

Qantas Group CEO Vanessa Hudson said confirmation of the launch route marks a new dawn of travel for customers around the world.

“Qantas was built on the belief that Australia's distance from the rest of the world should never stand in the way," Hudson says. "The pioneering spirit of generations of our people has forged that path ever since, and today is the most significant step in that mission in our 105-year history.

“Since we first flew the Kangaroo Route in 1947, where we stopped seven times 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."

I like a stop or two en route. A meal, maybe, a massage, even an overnight sleep. But for many speed in of the essence and this fits their needs. 

Since 2018, more than 1.7 million passengers have flown on Qantas' non-stop long-haul services from Perth to London, Rome and Paris, and its Melbourne to Dallas and Auckland to New York services. 

Long-haul non-stop flights between Australia and London and New York still on the Qantas agenda

Qantas still has plans to activate its "Project Sunrise" ultra-long haul flights between eastern Australian hubs and London and New York.

After two years of uncertainty, the world’s longest non-stop flights remain part of the airline’s plans.

Qantas CEO Alan Joyce told CNN the Australian flag carrier will re-examine the ultra-long haul routes next year with an aim of launching them within two to three years.

Project Sunrise remains "in the pipeline" Joyce said, but the immediate focus for Qantas is returning to normal after Covid-19 and refreshing its domestic fleet.

In an interview this week with CNN's Richard Quest, Joyce said: "We still have Project Sunrise in the pipeline, which is our ability to fly from Sydney and Melbourne to the last horizon, the last tyranny of distance, direct into London, direct into the east coast of the United States.

"That will be a unique value proposition that no other airline in the world will be offering."

Joyce says the airline plans to order a series of modified Airbus A350-1000 jets - with extra fuel tanks to increase the range of the aircraft - to service the routes.

Originally, the ultra long-haul routes were set to launch in 2022 or 2023. But with the pandemic decimating the global aviation industry, forcing airlines to shift to survival mode, the project was put on hold.

The name "Project Sunrise" was inspired by clandestine World War II flights that were made from Perth to Sri Lanka en route to London.