Updated July 24, 2026 – 10:52 amfirst published July 24, 2026 – 6:00 am
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Qantas’ Project Sunrise aircraft landed in Australia today after a direct 19-hour flight from its factory in France.
A specially adapted Airbus A350-1000ULR touched down in Melbourne on Friday after undergoing flight tests aimed at increasing its range.
It’s coming to Australia: the Sunrise A350-1000 ULR project in Toulouse, France. Chris Zappone
It is equipped with an additional fuel tank with a capacity of 20,000 liters, which increases the aircraft’s flight range to 18,000 km.
The Airbus aircraft is designed to fly non-stop for up to 22 hours, the longest commercial flight in the world, and will directly connect Australia with London and New York.
Qantas’ ambitious services have been closely scrutinized by the global aviation community. For example, flight tracking service FlightRadar24 showed that more than 60,000 people followed the plane’s journey as it came in to land.
As part of the Qantas A350-1000 fleet, the ULR will be able to travel directly between Sydney and London, flying either over parts of Eurasia, through Europe, or over the Pacific Ocean and then the North Pole.
The fastest Sydney-London flight will last 19 hours 25 minutes, while the slowest will take about 21 hours, Qantas said. The journey from London to Sydney will take between 18 and 20 hours.
Flight times will vary “day by day” and are “highly affected by the wind”, Qantas chief technical pilot Alex Passerini told a meeting in Toulouse in June.
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The aircraft, still wearing its original coating, was flown to Melbourne by four Airbus test pilots and five test engineers who will check the “aircraft systems”. Two Qantas pilots will join the Airbus flight test crew on the flight back to France.
The aircraft made its first flight on June 2, 2026. In the weeks since, Airbus test teams have carried out extensive testing on the ground and in the air at Toulouse, including an upgrade to the aircraft’s fuel system.
Sydneysiders who felt cut off by the first appearance of the Project Sunrise plane are not despairing. Project Sunrise is expected to fly between London and Sydney from October 2027.
There are currently no plans to schedule Project Sunrise routes to and from Melbourne.
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Chris Zappone is a senior reporter covering aviation and business. He is a former digital foreign editor.Connect via X, Facebook or e-mail.