Calling all Aussies living in the UK or the US, and all Brits or Americans who have emigrated to the land down under! If you dread the faff and extra time spent at airports during your connections (doesn’t everyone?), we’ve got some exciting news.
After seven years of development (and delays thanks to, you guessed it, the pandemic), Australian airline Qantas has announced that its closer to launching Project Sunrise, two direct services from Sydney, to London and New York.
Yes, you read that right – while that journey currently includes two or even through stopovers, a single flight could be on the cards for travellers from mid-2026.
Qantas CEO Vanessa Hudson spoke at an airline event at LAX in September, and according to the Independent, said, thanks to the strong performance of the 17-hour long flight from Perth to Europe, Qantas has ‘increased confidence about Project Sunrise.’
‘This will set the tyranny of distance as a thing of the past. It’s going to enable us to fly from Sydney and Melbourne to New York direct and also to London direct,’ she said.
The current record for the world’s longest flight is Singapore Airlines’ service from Singapore to JFK, which takes between 18 and 19 hours, but once Project Sunrise launches, that will surpass 19 hours of flight time (across 10,573 miles, no less).
For the plane nerds out there, 12 brand-new Airbus A350s will be used for the service, and there’ll be space 238 travellers. Exciting, eh? Stay tuned for more info on the launch.
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