Qantas set to reveal first Project Sunrise route

London, or New York? Qantas will next week reveal which city will see the first non-stop Project Sunrise flights, and when the “inaugural commercial services” are expected to take off from Sydney.

There are solid cases to be made for each of these premium destinations.

The prospect of the Sydney–London Kangaroo Route being reduced to a single globe-striding hop carries huge historical significance for Qantas, Australia and the UK.

This has been bolstered in light of the ongoing Iran war, which has impacted long-established flight paths over the Middle East.

That’s because one possible flight path from Sydney (and, later, Melbourne) to London is an arctic route up across Japan and Alaska, over the North Pole, then spearing down past Greenland and the edge of Norway to London.

But New York can’t be ruled out, and in some circles is considered the more likely launch route.

Sydney will host the first Project Sunrise flights, but will they be headed to London or New York?

The long-awaited Project Sunrise inaugural

As to when these flights will commence: the first Airbus A350-1000ULR (Ultra Long Range) jet is now slated for delivery in April 2027, Airbus says, “with further deliveries to follow in quick succession.”

As three jets needed to run daily flights, the Project Sunrise inaugural is likely to fall into the second half of 2027.

And before those 20+ hour flights begin, Qantas plans to have the massive A350 making short hops between Australia and New Zealand.

Speaking to Executive Traveller on the sidelines of an Airbus briefing in Hamburg, Germany last year, Qantas Group CEO Vanessa Hudson said the trans-Tasman flights will help train pilots and cabin crew on the new jets.

Qantas' new A350 first and business suites might debut on short Sydney-Auckland flights.

“You need about three aircraft to provide a daily service on a route like Sydney-London or Sydney-New York,” Hudson remarked – and as a prelude to that, “we’ll be doing lots of training with our pilots and our cabin crew.”

“So to do that, we will have that first aircraft probably flying on the Tasman to New Zealand, where it gives us a little bit of time to stretch its legs, but not too far.”

This means we can expect to see special Qantas A350 flights carrying passengers on short three-hour hops like Sydney–Auckland and Melbourne–Auckland.

These are certain to be sell-out affairs, with frequent flyers and enthusiasts keen to sample the new first class and business class suites on a quick jaunt across the pond – and it’s possible these might prove to be the “inaugural commercial services” which Qantas has teased.

The Project Sunrise premium

While the direct Project Sunrise flights will shave several hours off overall travel time, it’s less about the fastest way from A to B and more about passengers having that entire block of time uninterrupted, to use as they see fit.

“We’re hearing from our customers a greater desire to go point-to-point,” Hudson has said.

“And doing that in a premium and a comfortable seat is also something that customers are saying that they value, and they’re prepared to pay a premium for.”

Project Sunrise airfares could be 20% higher than the equivalent stopover services.

That premium could be 20% more than Qantas’ stopover flights, Hudson forecast.

A similar model is already in place with what the airline terms ‘Sunrise Lite’ flights: the airline’s current longest single-leap routes such as Perth to London, Rome and Paris, Melbourne–Dallas, and Auckland–New York, which are all around 17 hours long.

Also read: How much will Qantas charge for non-stop flights to London?

Stopovers will stay

The London and New York non-stops are expected to take over the flagship flight numbers currently assigned to Sydney–Singapore–London (QF1/QF2) and Sydney–Auckland–New York (QF3/QF4).

Qantas will continue to run those stopover services as complementary to the non-stop A350 flights.

“We’ll still have our A380 services over Singapore, where there are tremendous lounges and many people like the A380,” Qantas International chief Cam Wallace has previously told Executive Traveller.

“And then there’ll be Project Sunrise, and that’ll be clearly the quickest way into London.”

Many travellers bound for London will still prefer to break their journey at Singapore.

This doesn’t just reflect the reality that some travellers will prefer to break their journey rather than spend 18–22 hours in a metal tube.

It also comes down to the number of travellers which each plane can carry: 238 passengers on the A350, and 485 on the double-decker A380.

That leaves enough room in the market for both flights, along with the third option of Perth-London.

Qantas’ Sydney–Auckland–New York route will also remain alongside Project Sunrise, Wallace says – “we’ll offer two ways to get to New York, both for the local Auckland market as well as the Sydney, Melbourne and other (Australian) ports.”

Also read: Qantas A350-1000 seat map, from tip to tail