Qantas has a couple of dozen Airbus A350s on order, some of which will be used to operate the world’s longest nonstop flights. This includes flights from Sydney and Melbourne to New York and London.
Continue reading: Qantas Airbus A350-1000s For Project Sunrise Flights Delayed, Again
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
The fact that this project is delayed is quite a disappointment to me. I wish to give this new F Cabin a squirt when it becomes available. Each F suite appears to be similar to the AF La Premiere offering. Will the overall experience match the excellent AF product?
Ben, I would like to make you an offer which you can very easily refuse …. 🙂
If we can arrange to be on the same flight, over your chosen leg, I will arrange for you to have access to my seat for review purposes. You could, if you choose, almost carry out two reviews of different seat class while taking the single flight.
Project Sunrise? Project Homicide more likely, especially among passengers stuck for 22 hours in economy.
33” pitch in economy is not great for a flight of this length. Especially given JAL serves up better or the same on their “normal” flights.
Also, imagine you handover USD 15,000 for a one way trip in First and there’s a screaming baby in the suite next to you…oof!
…. 🙂 ….
PJOC, quite right under those circumstances I would find it difficult to choose between murder and suicide. However, being serious now. With noise cancelling ‘ear defenders’ as my wife calls them, one should be able to survive. Having said that, in my experience the problem has not occurred on any F flight I have taken.
Unless people from employer expense departments are reading. The wellness area will make a huge impact on my ability to overcome jetlag 😉
I wonder if these planes have enough range to make it to LHR while navigating through multiple airspace closures. Or will Qantas suffer the same fate as Air India with their flights to New York, having to add a stop every time someone decides to start a war.
The av geek in me wants to fly this. It is unlikely I will. I doubt I'll ever fly between Europe and Austrslia. A flight from Home-JFK-SYD/MEL/BNE under Sunrise will require more air time (and, near certaintly total travel time) than any current Home-???-SYD/MEL/BNE route. And, QF expects to charge a premium on the Sunrise flights (20% was it?). But even if economic pressures causes routes through JFK to be competitive in price for me, why would I spend the extra time traveling? This issue is the same for the majority of US residents. Why pay extra unless you avoid an additional leg (i.e., JFK is your final destination or starting point)?
Some of Ben’s fans complain about him not taking sufficient economy or premium economy review flights, perhaps he will satisfy their wishes on a Project Sunrise flight?
I'm genuinely surprised they are installing Y seats on these aircraft. Surely they learned from Singapore Airlines' NYC flights? (Wouldn't they have tried to poach someone from SQ who understands the economics of these ULR flights when determining cabin layout?)
QF will charge through the roof for these flights in all classes and I cannot think of a single reason why a Y passenger would choose to pay extra over the dozens of one-stop options.
"Incredible economics", as in totally not credible economics coming from the Manslaughterists of Toulouse. The same people who got suckered in to the A321XLR being the Greatest Thing Since Sliced Bread are now doubling down on this turd. How typical.
My guess is they don’t think they can fill an only premium plane at the right margins so they’ll sell economy cheap to take the incremental revenue and shift some capacity off other flights (and away from other 1 stop competitor). Or as Ben mentioned they want to still be able to use this plane on other routes where economy still makes sense like LAX
I will remain happy to fly QF through SIN to Europe as I love the crayfish Laksa in the F Lounge and just cannot imagine being enclosed in a metal tube beyond 14 - 15 hours but maybe I am just getting old ...........
Certifiable nut case comment ORD, your condition is definitely becoming …. ‘entertaining darlink’ …. I am certain that Ben appreciates your click.
Where is the idea that "Airbus doesn't use A350-1000ULR" coming from?
That nomenclature is all over their website. Seems like they use it, to me.
I'm excited for these -- I've flown the Singapore "longest scheduled route in the world" a couple of times and I look forward to graduating to an even longer route. Qantas could take a lesson from Singapore in not having any economy seating at all...
That said, the A350-1000 is probably my favorite current passenger aircraft (all-around)- I'm happy to see this is going forward!
I think it's an insult that Qantas is not using a Boeing for this, and it serves them right that this has been delayed.
If Trump was in charge, this would be ready by second half of 2026 and United or AA will be flying a brand new Boeing to Sydney.
Why we approve for these foreign missiles to fly into our country doesn't make sense.
"I think it's an insult that Qantas is not using a Boeing for this, and it serves them right that this has been delayed."
Come on, you can't possibly be THAT dimwitted.
Airbus's offering is a few months past when they said it'd be ready. Boeing's alternative is 6 years late, and counting.
They missed the boat to install PY at 2-3-2 so it can compete better and could have also installed 2-4-2 Economy ala JAL sky wider for these ULR routes. That could encourage customers to pay premium and made the journey more comfortable for people in these cabin.
I think this also goes nicely with currently high fuel price and imminent shortages. The whole project may very well be delayed to 2028 if we see a severe recession.