Qantas Project Sunrise goes ahead, 12 new A350-1000s ordered

[RooFlyer]

Hope this makes sense

Perfect sense, thanks. Except for the issues illustrated by @SYD , I would have said that the seat manufacturers should know, when a customer say, requests a custom item, whether it’s going to be able to be certified or not.

 

[leesionn]

Perfect sense, thanks. Except for the issues illustrated by @SYD , I would have said that the seat manufacturers should know, when a customer say, requests a custom item, whether it’s going to be able to be certified or not.

I think it's really difficult to predict - I agree that they probably should have some certainty but there can be uncertainty in the surrounding cabin environment - maybe currently they don't know what the galley setup is, the internal wiring etc? If they don't, maybe it would be a good practice to collaborate with whatever team does the fitouts of the entire cabin to ensure they can suggest features that are most likely to be certified? Who knows

 

[dajop]

They can operate 2 flights to the same port with 5 aircraft, depending on the timings.
For a period during the DXB stopover, they had the daily MEL-DXB-LHR and daily SYD-DXB-LHR each using 3 aircraft, then a retime to the MEL flight allowed that to go to 5 aircraft with the 6th going to DFW.

Yeh I remember that. Obviously sunrise would have shorter mileage to JFK and cut out 4 stops in the rotation (SYD-LHR-SYD-JFK-SYD will take less time than MEL-DXB-LHR-DXB-SYD-DXB-LHR-DXB-MEL). I guess it all depends on chosen (or given slot constraints, available) departure time out LHR.

 

[cosi]

Get onboard the #A350-1000ULR's unique flight test campaign!

Unlike typical test aircraft, MSN707 is a production model destined to join @Qantas' #ProjectSunrise fleet set to connect Sydney to London and New York non-stop. The challenge? Installing 5 tonnes of instrumentation without damaging the cabin.
Find out what we are testing and more!

 

[DejaBrew]

Apologies if these have already been posted.

 

[WilsonM]

Yeh I remember that. Obviously sunrise would have shorter mileage to JFK and cut out 4 stops in the rotation (SYD-LHR-SYD-JFK-SYD will take less time than MEL-DXB-LHR-DXB-SYD-DXB-LHR-DXB-MEL). I guess it all depends on chosen (or given slot constraints, available) departure time out LHR.

I think you could theoretically operate the SYD-LHR-SYD-JFK-SYD rotation daily with 4 aircraft, and an insanely tight schedule - I'm guessing the flights to LHR would be blocked at closer to 21-22 hours, while JFK is around 20? Obviously this is stupid and they'll want an op spare for launch.

 

[dajop]

- I'm guessing the flights to LHR would be blocked at closer to 21-22 hours, while JFK is around 20? Obviously this is stupid and they'll want an op spare for launch.

My guess, and it's just that, would be SYD-LHR - 21.5 hrs, LHR-SYD - 19.5-20 hrs , SYD-JFK 18hrs, JFK-SYD 19.5-20 hrs. Give or take. So in theory possible with 4 (that would allow 3 x 2 hr turn arounds and 1 x 11 hr turn around). But you've got have maintenance, allow for slot times and also operate at commercially appealing times, so 5 would be the absolute minimum I'd assume.

Times guesstimate based on SYD-DEL + DEL - LHR and SYD-DFW + DFW-JFK flying times. Block time is obviously greater than flying time, but there is also an extra ascent and descent when adding the two figures to make up for this.

 

[SYD]

This shouldn’t come as a surprise but don’t recall it being mentioned before?

Extra long test flight coming soon.

This Airbus A350 will soon make a record-breaking 24-hour test flight

Inside the gruelling test campaign of the newest Airbus jet.

www.executivetraveller.com

Certainly makes sense to do a few of those before the first paying PAX embark.

Also, one assumes the delivery flight TLS-SYD will be non-stop!

 

[AuSammy]

Perfect sense, thanks. Except for the issues illustrated by @SYD , I would have said that the seat manufacturers should know, when a customer say, requests a custom item, whether it’s going to be able to be certified or not.

QF definitely not the only carrier having difficulty with the bureaucracy associated with seat certification

https://loyaltylobby.com/2026/06/16/klms-first-two-airbus-a350-planes-enter-service-in-economy-only-configuration/

 

[SYD]

QF definitely not the only carrier having difficulty with the bureaucracy associated with seat certification

https://loyaltylobby.com/2026/06/16/klms-first-two-airbus-a350-planes-enter-service-in-economy-only-configuration/

AFAIK, QF haven’t put the delays down to seat certification - just “supply chain” issues. It could be seats or something completely different.

They do seem pretty confident that the subsequent planes will be to schedule.

Meanwhile, I couldn’t see them doing PS with an all whY config!

 

[Quickstatus]

Would it though?

Hard to know without specifying engine out speed for A350-1000 and ETOPS cert for QF But assuming there is no restrictions, the distance over arctic extends mileage by 900nm (9100 vs 10000nm) compared to over Russia which extends the elapsed time by roughly nearly 2hrs (1kt =1nm/hr)

Comparing with via the ME, the arctic route extends the elapsed time by about 1 hr (9500 vs 10000nm)

Shortest Straight line is over Russia
Over arctic is longer than over ME

What happens to aircraft communications during North Pole geomagnetic storms. I understand that aircraft generally fly under these storms but would sat coms be affected as the geostationary satellites are above the auroras. HF radio?

 

[LondonAussie]

This is the rough route comparisons, Arctic is quite a bit longer by distance but if they can find very favourable jetstream tailwinds it may not take too much longer by time.

 

[Melburnian1]

My guess, and it's just that, would be SYD-LHR - 21.5 hrs, LHR-SYD - 19.5-20 hrs , SYD-JFK 18hrs, JFK-SYD 19.5-20 hrs. Give or take. So in theory possible with 4 (that would allow 3 x 2 hr turn arounds and 1 x 11 hr turn around). But you've got have maintenance, allow for slot times and also operate at commercially appealing times, so 5 would be the absolute minimum I'd assume.

Times guesstimate based on SYD-DEL + DEL - LHR and SYD-DFW + DFW-JFK flying times. Block time is obviously greater than flying time, but there is also an extra ascent and descent when adding the two figures to make up for this.

@dajop , from observation, QF rarely if ever manages a 'two hour turnaround' for its A380s and struggles to do this with its B787s and A333s, so it would seem unwise to specify this for the Project Sunrise aircraft.

Remind me: how many seats will there be in each class? And will any require to be empty in at least one direction (cf. the PER-LHR QF9 situation): if so, how many in each class?

 

[dajop]

Hard to know without specifying engine out speed for A350-1000 and ETOPS cert for QF But assuming there is no restrictions, the distance over arctic extends mileage by 900nm (9100 vs 10000nm) compared to over Russia which extends the elapsed time by roughly nearly 2hrs (1kt =1nm/hr)


What happens to aircraft communications during North Pole geomagnetic storms. I understand that aircraft generally fly under these storms but would sat coms be affected as the geostationary satellites are above the auroras. HF radio?

Got to account for the jetstream/so called "tail winds". If you add up the flying time for SYD-HND/HND-LHR or SYD-YVR/YVR-LHR you can get this down to about 22 hrs, is not dissimilar to the flying time for say SYD-DEL/DEL-LHR. I assume whatever route that QF would choose would depend on conditions, but it's not hard to imagine a route over Alaska and Greenland that lies some where in between HND and YVR. (noting that both SYD-HND-LHR and SYD-YVR-LHR are 10800 nm), and the "in between" route would be about 600-700nm less.

Of course I assume this would be a no go for the LHR-SYD direction.