Qantas has announced London as the first destination for the world's longest non-stop commercial flight, a roughly 20-hour trip from Sydney that will remove the traditional stopover on the "Kangaroo Route".
The carrier plans to start selling tickets in February and launch the flights in October 2027, CEO Vanessa Hudson told an event in Toulouse, France.
Hudson said Qantas will charge a roughly 20 per cent premium on those flights compared with one-stop routes.
The flights are part of the airline's Project Sunrise initiative, which will also serve New York using modified Airbus A350-1000ULR jets capable of flying up to 22 hours with 238 passengers on board.
Each aircraft will be configured with 238 seats across four cabins — first class, business, premium economy and economy — and will be fitted with an additional 20,000-litre fuel tank, enabling it to fly more than 16,000km for up to 22 hours non-stop.
Qantas named Project Sunrise after the airline's double sunrise endurance flights during World War Two, which remained airborne long enough to see two sunrises.
The aim is to cut what was once a five-day trek on the "Kangaroo Route" to London to a single hop of 19 to 21 hours, depending on routing and winds.
Qantas will use polar routes about a quarter of the time, especially during the northern hemisphere winter.
The trip currently takes 24 to 25 hours via Singapore.
