Qantas Project Sunrise Flights Might Not Make It To Melbourne

Qantas has ordered a dozen Airbus A350-1000ULRs for Project Sunrise, and the original pitch was daily non-stop flights from both Sydney and Melbourne to London and New York. But that might no longer be the plan.

The initial six aircraft are committed to Sydney-London and Sydney-New York, with the first flight to London due to launch in October 2027. The remaining six, arriving from early 2028 through to late 2029, are not guaranteed to offer Melbourne the same treatment.

To be fair, Qantas never locked Melbourne in as a firm commitment. But it's been on the list since day one, and mentioned several times as a key Project Sunrise hub.

When asked directly whether the airline still plans to fly non-stop from Melbourne to London under Project Sunrise, Qantas Group CFO Rob Marcolina gave a carefully vague answer: "We haven't made those decisions yet."

"There are six of those aircraft that we've talked about that will fly direct from Sydney to New York and to London, but we are intending to have these aircraft fly on existing 787-9 routes," adds Marcolina.

The Math Doesn't Add Up For Melbourne

Qantas has previously said it needs three A350-1000ULRs to run a daily non-stop service on a single route. That's the entire reason the original order was for 12 aircraft, three planes each for Sydney-London, Sydney-New York, Melbourne-London, and Melbourne-New York, giving a daily service on all four.

Using Qantas’ own math, as soon as they deploy just one A350-1000ULR on an existing B787 route, they are unable to commit to at least some daily Project Sunrise flights.

As to which routes the ULR will operate from Melbourne, Dallas and Los Angeles were hinted at, but it could be any of Qantas’ existing international services. Marcolina stopped short of ruling Melbourne-London out entirely, framing it as a matter of optionality rather than commitment.

"It's not that [Melbourne to London] won't work, it's just that we have a lot of options at the moment, and so we're just going to make sure that we make the best optimal use of the aircraft. Whether that's in more ultra-long-haul flying, or the replacement of 787-9 routes."

Summing Up

Don't hold your breath for a non-stop Melbourne-London or Melbourne-New York service any time soon. The aircraft that were meant to make that happen are more likely to show up on Qantas flights you can already book today, just with a much nicer plane.

The whole point of these aircraft is the huge range they offer, so not using that range from Melbourne as originally intended is a real letdown for Victorians. Sure, Melbourne passengers could connect onto the non-stop Sydney flights, but by the time you've flown Melbourne to Sydney, then switched terminals and planes, you've wiped out any time advantage a non-stop flight was supposed to offer.