Qantas Project Sunrise Airbus A350 Completes Record Longest Commercial Flight by Distance

Photo credit: Airbus | Qantas
An Airbus A350-1000ULR left Melbourne late on July 27, 2026, and reached Toulouse the next morning after covering 12,503 nautical miles. Airbus confirmed this week that the flight, validated by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale and Flightradar24, now holds the Guinness World Record for the longest distance ever flown by a commercial airliner.⁠

The aircraft, designated AIB-35LR, took off from Melbourne at 5:27 p.m. local time. As it rose east, it flew directly over Sydney before turning northeast and heading across the Pacific to Los Angeles. Of course, the crew had to cross the International Date Line, and then the jet flew past North America and Canada before swinging out over the Atlantic to the south of Greenland.

From there, the crew headed toward the United Kingdom and the city of London, eventually landing in Toulouse at 9:51 local time on July 28th. At this point, the total time in the air had reached 24 hours and 24 minutes, making for a long trip for the 13 people on board: three Airbus test pilots, two Qantas pilots, five Airbus flight-test engineers, two design engineers, and a Fédération Aéronautique Internationale observer for good measure. During the plane’s long flight across three continents and two oceans, the crew witnessed not one, but two sunsets and sunrises.

A direct flight from Melbourne to Toulouse would have covered around 9,100 nautical miles. However, the test crew chose a far longer route, taking the aircraft all the way from Australia’s east coast to Western Europe. And they intended to accomplish this so that the plane could demonstrate its incredible durability. Airbus needed to demonstrate that the aircraft could handle a 23-hour block time (from parking-brake release to chocks-on at arrival) in order to handle the really long commercial flights they’re planning later on, which will be 21 hours and 40 minutes long, plus all of the extra time the pilots will need to spend holding, diverting, and taxiing.

The A350-1000ULR can travel such long distances because to a single additional structural component: a large rear center tank capable of holding around 20,000 liters of fuel. This tank, together with the additional load-bearing construction around the center wing box and in the undercarriage, allows the plane to carry a bit more gasoline, resulting in a longer range. The plane is powered by two Rolls-Royce Trent XWB-97 engines, and the first aircraft flew from Toulouse to Melbourne in 19 hours and 13 minutes just a few days before. The return trip, as you might guess, simply reversed everything and flew the plane as far as they could.

Project Sunrise, of course, has been a Qantas strategy since 2017, with the goal of launching nonstop routes from Sydney to London and New York. These two routes would be more than 10,000 nautical miles long, taking up to 22 hours to complete. At the moment, any one-stop itinerary adds at least four hours to the total duration. Qantas will therefore require the ultra-long-range A350-1000s (of which they have purchased 12), with the first, called Vega, slated to arrive in April 2027. They want to launch commercial Sydney-London flights under the QF1 and QF2 flight numbers in October 2027, with Sydney-New York scheduled for mid-2028.

Inside, the passenger version of the plane will have only 238 seats, the fewest of any A350-1000 currently in service. The configuration will include six First Class suites, 52 Business Class suites, 40 Premium Economy seats, and 140 Economy seats. There will also be a Wellbeing Zone between the Premium Economy and Economy class areas where passengers can stand up, stretch with the wall-mounted handles, do some on-screen movement exercises, and drink. There are many other nice additions, like as cabin lighting that helps passengers adjust to the destination time zone and complimentary high-speed Wi-Fi and Bluetooth audio throughout the plane.

Until this flight, the Boeing 777-200LR held the distance record, flying from Hong Kong to London in 22 hours and 42 minutes in November 2005. It traveled an amazing 11664 nautical miles eastward. However, the A350-1000ULR presently leads by 839 nautical miles and 1 hour 42 minutes. Airbus executives hailed this performance as the proof they required that the upgraded A350 could do the task Qantas requested, and guess what? The record itself emerged as a pleasant result of the certifying procedure.

Flight-test data continues to be thoroughly reviewed to ensure full certification. Then, after the remaining planes are added to the fleet, Qantas will be able to claim the status of being the first airline to fly nonstop flights between Australia’s east coast and both London and New York. People expect to be able to order tickets for the Sydney-London route in February 2027.
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