Engineering

Qantas Tests Long-Range Airbus in France-to-Australia Flight

Is this a breakthrough for ultra-long-haul travel or just recycled hype?

Published JUL 24

Qantas Tests Long-Range Airbus in France-to-Australia Flight

Story

Above: A Qantas A350-1000ULR arrives at Melbourne's Tullamarine Airport on July 24. Image credit: William West/AFP/Getty Images

The Facts

An Airbus A350-1000ULR completed a nonstop test flight from Toulouse, France, to Melbourne, Australia, on Friday, covering roughly 17,000 kilometers (10,563 miles) in just over 19 hours as part of Qantas' Project Sunrise certification campaign.
Flight Global
AeroTime
Nine crew members were on board — four Airbus flight test pilots and five flight test engineers — along with five tons of testing equipment and around 1,000 sensors to monitor aircraft systems throughout the journey.
7NEWS
Anadolu Agency
The aircraft is fitted with an additional rear center fuel tank that extends its range by approximately 1,000 nautical miles, enabling flights of up to 22 hours. The return flight to Toulouse, departing Melbourne on July 27, was expected to take around 23 hours.
Guardian
Business Traveller
The test flight was the most-watched flight globally on Friday, with more than 67,000 people tracking its progress on Flightradar24. Broadcaster BFM TV reported that around 2.7 million people followed the journey live on the platform.
Guardian
Anadolu Agency
Qantas plans to launch a nonstop Sydney-to-London service in October 2027, a route the airline says will save passengers up to four hours compared with the fastest current one-stop service. Tickets are due to go on sale in February 2027.
Business Traveller
The Nightly
The first Project Sunrise aircraft, named Vega, is scheduled for delivery in April 2027 after supply chain issues pushed back an earlier late-2026 target. Qantas has ordered 12 A350-1000ULRs in total, each configured with 238 seats — fewer than the 300-plus on standard A350-1000 models.
AeroTime
Express

Sources Split

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The Spin

Narrative A

This test flight proves Qantas leads the way in ultra-long-haul travel with its custom A350 that will slash hours off of transnational trips. Project Sunrise sets a new standard that leaves one-stop flights in the dust.

Business Traveller

FlightRadar24 on X

Narrative B

This test flight changes nothing since far longer nonstop journeys happened decades ago with piston planes and even modern jets. The whole Project Sunrise effort looks like recycled hype without real breakthroughs.