After years of planning, Qantas announced late Tuesday that it will launch the first ever nonstop commercial flights between Australia and New York in mid-2028.
The transpacific connection will shave more than three hours off the total travel time between Sydney and New York compared to currently operating one-stop services, Qantas officials said. Tickets will become available for purchase in August 2027.
Nonstop service to New York has been a long-term goal of Qantas’ Project Sunrise, which aims to link cities on Australia’s east coast with far flung destinations in North America and Europe with a single trip. The carrier announced earlier this year that nonstop flights between Sydney and London will begin in October 2027, but it gave no hints about a New York launch until this week.
Qantas currently connects Sydney and New York-JFK with a stop in Auckland.
Operation Sunrise flights will use a modified, extra-long-range variant of Airbus’ A350 known as the A350-1000ULR. Developed in partnership with Qantas, the 238-seat aircraft contains an additional 20,000-liter fuel tank and can fly up to 22 hours nonstop.
The -1000ULR is currently undergoing flight testing in France. Qantas expects to take delivery of the first production -1000ULR in April 2027. The carrier has ordered 12 of the aircraft in total.
Qantas leaders said the new route will help meet rising demand for travel options between Australia and the U.S.
“Conquering the tyranny of distance has been part of who Qantas is from the very beginning,” Qantas Group CEO Vanessa Hudson said in a news release. “Reaching New York nonstop completes a vision we set out many years ago, and it’s a moment of enormous pride for the thousands of our people who have been working hard to make Project Sunrise a reality.”
Qantas announced Project Sunrise in 2017. It weighed competing proposals for ultra-long-range aircraft from both Boeing and Airbus before settling on a modified version of the A350. Boeing had offered its 777-8 as the basis for an extended-range model.
