Qantas announces 18-hour Project Sunrise flight to New York for 2028

Qantas announces Project Sunrise flight to New York for 2028
Nonstop Sydney to New York estimated at 18 hours
Route follows Sydney to London launch in October 2027
Aircraft is specially configured Airbus A350-1000ULR
Tickets on sale from August 2027

Qantas has confirmed New York as the second destination for its Project Sunrise fleet with nonstop flights from Sydney due to begin in mid-2028. The estimated 18-hour flight time is at least three hours faster than Qantas’s current one-stop service between Sydney and New York. The route will follow October 2027’s scheduled launch of nonstop Sydney to London flights the first in the airline’s Project Sunrise programme.

Right now getting from Sydney to New York with Qantas means transiting through Auckland with a three-hour hop across the Tasman a two-hour layover and then another 16 hours in the air. Project Sunrise removes the middle step entirely with Qantas stating passengers will board in Sydney and land at JFK about 18 hours later cutting roughly three hours from the total journey. Tickets for the inaugural service go on sale from August 2027.

The route will be flown by a specially configured Airbus A350-1000ULR fitted with an extra 20,000-litre fuel tank that extends its range to more than 16,000 kilometres and up to 22 hours of nonstop flying. Qantas is taking delivery of 12 of the aircraft each seating 238 passengers across four cabins. The first test aircraft is in the final stages of its flight-test programme and recently flew nonstop from Melbourne to Toulouse in 24 hours and 24 minutes a record for a commercial airliner according to Qantas.