Qantas completes record 24-hour commercial flight

Qantas has achieved what is believed to be the longest commercial flight on record, with an aircraft landing in Toulouse, France, 24 hours and 24 minutes after departing Melbourne. The flight is a crucial part of the airline's Project Sunrise initiative, which aims to introduce direct long-haul services from Australia to international destinations.

Project Sunrise and the A350

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The flight utilized a specially modified Airbus A350-1000ULR, an aircraft designed for ultra-long-haul journeys. This particular jet is equipped with an additional fuel tank, enabling it to cover extensive distances. Airbus has been conducting a two-month test campaign with this aircraft since June. The flight covered 23,075km over the Pacific and Atlantic oceans without any stops, landing at the aircraft manufacturer's facility in Toulouse.

This latest flight surpasses the previous record for the longest commercial flight, which stood at 22 hours and 42 minutes, set in 2005. In a separate test flight last week, the same aircraft flew from Toulouse to Melbourne in just over 19 hours.

Public Interest and Future Plans

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The journey attracted significant public attention, with flight-tracking service Flightradar24 reporting that more than 3.6 million people monitored the flight's progress online. This made it the second-most-tracked flight in the platform's history, behind only the flight carrying Queen Elizabeth II's coffin in 2022. Qantas has placed an order for 12 of the modified A350-1000ULR aircraft, which are intended to facilitate nonstop flights to London and New York from Australia's east coast, with journey times expected to be around 20 hours.

The airline anticipates that these new services will transform the traditional 'Kangaroo Route' to London, reducing a journey that previously took five days to a single flight of approximately 19 to 21 hours. The first of these new aircraft is scheduled for delivery in April 2027, and Qantas plans to commence daily nonstop flights between Sydney and London in October 2027.