Qantas Puts New Ultra-Long-Range Jet Through Its Paces With 19-Hour Test Flight

Qantas’s latest long-haul aircraft touched down on Australian soil for the first time Friday, completing a 19-hour nonstop test flight from France. The Airbus A350-1000ULR, built to handle some of the world’s longest commercial routes, left the manufacturer’s facility in Toulouse on Thursday and landed in Melbourne after covering nearly 17,000 kilometers. The flight drew more than 67,000 live-trackers on Flightradar24, making it the most-watched flight globally that day.

The plane is designed to fly up to 22 hours nonstop, supporting Qantas’s planned Sydney-to-London direct service, which is now expected to launch in October 2027. Onboard were four Airbus test pilots and five flight engineers. Qantas chief technical pilot Alex Passerini told Channel Seven the return trip to Toulouse on Monday would take 23 hours, with crews testing everything from fuel transfer to air conditioning. He acknowledged the challenge of fatigue, saying, “Everyone’s going to get tired,” but noted the crew would take regular breaks aligned with the airline’s data-driven systems.

This test model, still wearing a tan exterior with Qantas logos instead of the airline’s signature white-and-red livery, first flew on June 2 for a short test over France. The first fully painted Qantas A350-1000ULR, named Vega, remains on the assembly line and is slated for delivery in April 2027. Qantas has ordered 12 of these jets, each configured with 238 seats—far fewer than the 300-plus seats on standard A350-1000s—thanks to an extra 20,000-liter fuel tank that extends range to nearly 18,500 kilometers.

Qantas’s Project Sunrise, the long-delayed plan for nonstop Sydney-London flights, has been pushed back multiple times. In November 2025, the airline targeted early 2027, but Airbus later delayed the first delivery to April 2027. While Qantas previously mentioned Melbourne and Brisbane as possible hubs for direct routes to London and New York, the company’s latest announcement in June focused on Sydney, with officials saying route decisions will depend on customer demand.