According to Flightradar24, the journey from Melbourne, Australia, to Toulouse in France covered 23,075.92 kilometers, setting a world record for the longest distance ever flown by a commercial airliner without stopping.
It breaks a record held by a Boeing 777-200LR since 2005.
The flight left Melbourne on July 27 morning and landed safely at Airbus headquarters on July 28 after crossing three continents, two oceans, and 17 time zones.
It is a major milestone for Qantas’ ambitious “Project Sunrise”, a plan to connect the east coast of Australia directly with London and New York.
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Qantas Airbus A350 test aircraft during the Toulouse – Melbourne leg of Project Sunrise, July 2026. Photo by Qantas |
Qantas first announced the vision in 2017 and ordered 12 specially modified Airbus A350-1000ULR aircraft in 2022.
As reported by British newspaper The Guardian, the planes are purpose-built for ultra-long-haul routes with an extra 20,000-liter fuel tank, enabling a maximum non-stop range of nearly 18,500 kilometers.
For travelers, this means a transformation of long-distance travel, as these direct routes can shave up to four hours off travel time compared to traditional one-stop flights.
Tickets on the Sydney-London route are expected to go on sale in February 2027, and the first flight will be in October that year.
Spending a full day in the air naturally raises concerns like jet lag and fatigue.
To address this, Qantas collaborated with industry leaders and sleep researcher Professor Peter Cistulli of the University of Sydney Charles Perkins Center to design an inflight experience centered around circadian-rhythm science.
Qantas has said the aircraft has spacious, ergonomically designed interiors with just 238 seats, the lowest seat density of any Airbus A350-1000 in service worldwide, as against the standard 300-plus setup.
To help passengers stay active, the carrier has designed a “wellbeing zone” between the premium economy and economy cabins featuring sculpted wall panels with integrated stretch handles, a hydration station, and premium refreshments.
The planes have 12 custom lighting scenes, including ‘sunrise’, ‘sunset’, and ‘awake’, grounded in circadian-rhythm science, which Qantas said would help travelers adjust smoothly to destination time zones and reduce jet lag.
Aviation portal Aerotime said the longest non-stop commercial flights ever took place during World War II, when Qantas operated Catalina flying boats.
Known as “double sunrise” flights, these non-stop journeys over the Indian Ocean lasted up to 33 hours, long enough for passengers to observe two sunrises before reaching their destination.
Decades later, this modern Melbourne-to-Toulouse test flight captured the world’s attention once again.
Flightradar24 data shows the flight logged 3,652,947 live tracking views, making it the second most tracked flight of all time, behind only the final flight of Queen Elizabeth II in 2022.