SYDNEY, 11 November 2026: From October 2027, QF1 and QF2 will fly Sydney to London nonstop for the first time as part of the airline’s Project Sunrise, the airline reported on 9 November.
The Kangaroo Route first began flying from Sydney to London in 1947, when the journey took four days and seven stops. For almost 80 years, generations of Qantas aircraft, from the Lockheed Constellation to the Boeing 747 and Airbus A380, have brought Sydney and London closer together.
“Through it all, QF1 and QF2, our most iconic flight number pair, have long been associated with that journey and a key part of Qantas’ history. In October 2027, that journey becomes nonstop with the launch of Project Sunrise, saving customers up to four hours in travel time compared to the existing service,” the airline said in a press statement earlier this week.
Project Sunrise flights will operate using a specially configured Airbus A350-1000ULR aircraft, fitted with an additional 20,000-litre fuel tank that enables the aircraft to fly more than 16,000 kilometres, and up to 22 hours nonstop. Qantas will take delivery of 12 aircraft in total, each configured with 238 seats across four cabins.
The first test aircraft is currently in the final stages of its flight test programme, and the first aircraft is expected to be delivered to Qantas in April next year.
Qantas’ existing Sydney to London via Singapore service will continue to operate with new flight numbers, QF5 and QF6, for customers who want a stopover. The seasonal Qantas Perth-Rome services currently operating as QF5 and QF6 will adopt the flight code QF105 and QF106.
The airline confirmed that tickets for the direct Sydney-London service are scheduled to go on sale from February 2027.
Nine News Australia called it a “huge change for avid travellers, the iconic QF1 and QF2 Qantas flight routes will be nonstop from Sydney to London from October 2027. This means no stopover in Singapore.”
Qantas chief executive Vanessa Hudson announced earlier this year that London would be the first destination for the world’s longest nonstop commercial flight.
“Qantas was built on the belief that Australia’s distance from the rest of the world should never stand in the way,” she said. “Since we first flew the Kangaroo Route in 1947, when we stopped seven times on the way to London, every generation of aircraft has taken a stop out of the journey. Today, we’re taking out the last one.”
(Source: Qantas plus Nine News Australia)
