Flying nonstop from Sydney to London: 20 hours aboard an Airbus A350
Qantas chose Airbus to make world's longest flight, more than 20 hours nonstop
Qantas
Oneworld
We had written this recently, the pandemic had slowed but not cancelled Project Sunrise from Qantas' plans, and today came the announcement.
In this article:
The Australian carrier has chosen Airbus and the A350 to create the world's longest nonstop air link.
Before the pandemic Qantas had challenged Boeing and Airbus to provide an aircraft that could enable the company to fly, nonstop, from Sydney to London and New York. Namely. travel more than 10 thousand miles safely and with a plane full of passengers.
The "project sunrise" it's called that because Is a flight in which you go through two sunrises or two sunsets, depending on the direction of travel. The challenge, as was well known, had been won by Airbus, all that was missing was the official announcement. The fact that it comes only a few days after Yet another delay by Boeing in the development of the 777x is confirmation that Qantas waited until the last minute to decide which of the two companies to entrust this very important order to the company.
The A350, when it enters service, will break the record held by another A350, that of Singapore Airlines, which connects New York to the city-state nonstop every day. Asian. In this case it is an A350/900ULR, while the variant chosen by Qantas is the 1000, which is larger and thus can carry more fuel and passengers.
A 20-hour flight
Twenty hours of flight time, without going ashore, are many and Qantas has already made similar connections, with semi-empty planes, to test crews and passenger needs.
Feedback has been positive and especially the Australian carrier is convinced that the About 3 hours less than the best possible connection, can make a difference for those who want to move without wasting time and without having the added stress of a connecting flight.
In Italy, the longest flight right now is Qantas' own connection between Rome and Perth, which takes 16 hours and is the 18th longest direct link in the world. While, for comparison, the longest flight operated by ITA Airways is the connection to Buenos Aires from Rome Fiumicino, which will depart, again aboard an A350/900, on June 2.
Order details
To celebrate the signing of this order in grand style, yesterday an A350 took off from Toulouse where Airbus is headquartered heading for Australia.
Follow the #Airbus A350-1000 F-WMIL on direct flight from Toulouse (France) to Perth (#Australia) for a demonstration flight of the #ProjectSunrise with @flightradar24 . ?? ? #Qantas
-> https://t.co/6wrNTQzJsr pic.twitter.com/EHX08pUg8j- Aviation Toulouse (@Frenchpainter) April 30, 2022
As can be seen, a special inscription #LongRangeLeader was drawn on the fuselage of the plane, confirming all the rumors of the last few hours.
- There are 12 aircraft ordered by Qantas from Airbus, with delivery scheduled for late 2025
- The planes will be configured with 238 seats, far less than the capacity of the A350/1000. As is the case with the planes Singapore uses for flights to New York, the cabin layout will be more spacious to give passengers more comfortable
- Unlike Singapore, however, there will be 4 classes of service: first, business, premium eco and economy. Passengers in the economy class should be provided with about 10 cm more than on traditional long-haul aircraft.
In addition to the A350s, Qantas has ordered a total of 40 other aircraft: 20 from the A220 family and as many A321xlr.
How the A350s will be outfitted
Customers on board Qantas' new fleet of A350 aircraft will be able to choose from: suites of first class with separate bed, recliner chair and personal wardrobe; a next-generation business suite; a new Premium Economy seat with over 1 meter of personal space and a new Economy seat with nearly 85 cm of space; there will be a wellness area on board Dedicated designed for movement, stretching and hydration.
In conclusion
Now all that remains is to wait if other carriers will follow Qantas' route. Examples are always given of flights to Sydney from London and New York, but Paris, Frankfurt, and Rome could also be interested in having a direct connection on the "kangaroo route."
