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At the moment, if you wanted to get from London to Sydney, you’re looking at an arduous 30 hour (or thereabouts) multi-stage journey complete with anxiety over whether your baggage made it through the layover. Now, imagine if you could get to the Harbour City on one non-stop 20 hour flight, instead. Wouldn’t that be so much simpler?
Thanks to Australian airline Qantas, a direct flight from London to Sydney will be a real option within the next few years. Qantas has been working on Project Sunrise, which will introduce flights between London and Sydney and New York and Sydney, since 2017. It says that the new links will overcome the ‘tyranny of distance’/
Right now, the longest flight in the world is the 9,537 mile trip from Singapore to New York, which takes just over 18 hours. The London to Sydney route would overtake that, spanning 10,573 miles.
Given that it’s never been done before, the average aircraft isn’t built for such a mammoth journey. So Airbus is building 12 special A350 aircrafts with additional fuel tanks that will be able to take it on. The vehicles will also have fewer seats than usual (238 instead of over 300) to make space for passengers to walk around, will be the first planes to have a dedicated wellness zone and will have wi-fi access for all.
We thought that the flights would be up and running by early 2027 but this week, Qantas announced that there has been a holdup. Now, the first aircraft is due to be delivered in April 2027. The delay is down to supply chain issues affecting Airbus due to the ongoing conflict in the Middle East.
Qantas has promised that, despite the delay, it’ll be back on its original schedule by November. It’ll announce its new start date, and whether the first route will serve London or New York, at an event at the Airbus HQ in Toulouse in June.
A spokesperson for the airline said: ‘While the first aircraft delivery has shifted to April 2027, the next four will follow in quick succession, putting us back on our original schedule by November.
‘We continue to work closely with Airbus on the delivery and certification process that will enable us to begin operating these history-making ultra long-haul flights.’
Qantas’ ultra-long-haul flights were were initially projected to be ready by 2022. But, like many, many other projects, it was delayed because of the Covid-19 pandemic. It was met with further delays because of issues with the additional fuel tank and was pushed to the first half of 2027.
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