Qantas to launch direct Sydney to London flights as first ‘Project Sunrise’ route
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, on its way to the UK.
The new non-stop flights will cut up to four hours off the travel time compared to current one-stop services.
These historic ultra long-haul services will operate alongside Qantas’ existing Perth-London and Sydney-Singapore-London services.
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,” she said.
“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.
“We made a commitment in 2017 that Qantas would conquer the final frontier of long-haul aviation and connect Australia’s east coast directly to London, something that has never before been possible. From October 2027, that promise becomes reality.”
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, with these routes recording the highest customer satisfaction scores on the airline’s international network.
Daily non-stop services between Sydney and London from late 2027 will significantly expand travel options for customers across Australia travelling to the UK and Europe.
Hudson said the Project Sunrise experience represents a fundamentally different approach to long-haul travel.
“Eliminating the stopover saves customers up to four hours of travel time,” she said. “This aircraft has been designed from the ground up for ultra long-haul travel, with a cabin built around science and combatting jetlag, with an onboard experience purpose-built for the length of the journey.”
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.