The Airbus A350-1000ULR aircraft that’s set to conquer the final frontier of long-haul travel touched down on Australian soil for the first time last week (Jul 24) as the flight test campaign for Qantas’ Project Sunrise reaches a major milestone.

The first A350-1000ULR to take to the skies landed in Melbourne at 10.45am with a flight time of 19 hours and 12 minutes, following an extensive test flight from Airbus’ manufacturing facility in Toulouse.

From October 2027, these aircraft will operate Qantas’ world-first non-stop services between Sydney and London, the longest non-stop commercial flights in the world.

The flight was tracked on Flightradar24 by over 2.9 million people making it the second most tracked flight of all time.

The test flight from Toulouse was operated by four Airbus flight test pilots and five flight test engineers, who put the aircraft’s systems through its paces, including the additional 20,000-litre fuel tank that allows it to fly commercially non-stop for up to 22 hours.

The aircraft completed its first flight on 2 June 2026. In the weeks since, Airbus’ test teams have carried out extensive testing on the ground and in the air in Toulouse, including of the aircraft’s redesigned fuel system.

The first A350-1000ULR painted in the Qantas livery, named ‘Vega’, continues to take shape on the Airbus final assembly line and the aircraft will be the first Project Sunrise aircraft delivered to Qantas, in April 2027.

Qantas’ world-first non-stop services between Sydney and London will save customers up to four hours compared with the fastest one-stop service today.

These historic 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 A350-1000ULR has been specifically manufactured by Airbus for Project Sunrise. Qantas will take delivery of 12 aircraft in total, each configured with 238 seats across four cabins.