New Qantas plane touches down in Australia after historic 20-hour test flight
Updated . First published
Qantas’ new ultra-long-haul Project Sunrise plane has officially landed in Australia for the first time after completing a historic 20-hour test flight.
The specially built A350-1000ULR aircraft, which is set to deliver the airline’s first non-stop Sydney to London flights from late 2027, embarked on the 17,000km flight from Toulouse to Melbourne on Friday.
The specially built A350-1000ULR aircraft landed at Melbourne Airport on Friday. 9News
It landed at Melbourne Airport on Friday morning at 10:46am AEST.
The journey attracted plenty of attention from plane and transport enthusiasts, with more than 75,000 people watching the landing on flightradar24.com.
At the time of touchdown it was the number one most watched flight in the world.
Qantas confirmed in a statement there are two Qantas pilots and the Airbus flight test crew on board. The aircraft will then depart Melbourne on Monday to return to Airbus headquarters in Toulouse as part of the test program.
Qantas announced in June that its first ultra-long-haul Project Sunrise flight will take off between Sydney and London from October 2027, with bookings open in February 2027.
The new flight will shave around four hours off the current one-stop journeys between Sydney and the UK.
A Sydney to New York service is set to follow within months.
Qantas’ new ultra-long-haul plane is on route to Australia. Flightradar24.com
The plane took off from Toulouse in France at 7:30am local time. Qantas
Fares for these ultra-long-haul services are projected to be roughly 20 per cent higher than traditional one-stop flights.
The plane’s long-range capabilities are made possible by an additional 20,000 litre rear centre fuel tank and enhanced systems.
Qantas unveiled its first Airbus A350-1000ULR in Qantas livery in June. Supplied/Stuart Bailey
It completed its maiden test flight on June 3, operated by two Airbus Flight Test Pilots, three Flight Test Engineers and one Ground Test Engineer.
The test flight took off from Toulouse and flew for three hours 43 minutes over France and the French Atlantic Coast.
Since then, the team has been putting it through its paces, before embarking on its first mammoth journey to Australia.
The new 140-seat Economy cabin is configured in a 3-3-3. Qantas
The first of 12 new aircraft was scheduled for delivery in late 2026. However, it has since been delayed due to supply chain issues and is not expected to arrive in April 2027.
Qantas said, “the next four will follow in quick succession”.
Three aircraft are needed to run a daily non-stop service on the routes.
The 20-plus-hour commercial service will officially become the longest non-stop passenger flight in the world when it takes off.
Currently, Singapore Airlines still holds the title of the world’s longest flight, thanks to its Singapore to New York route, according to the Official Aviation Guide’s (OAG) airline schedules data.
The flight, which was first launched in October 2018, covers 15,332 kilometres with a flight time of 18 hours and 40 minutes.
