Qantas Project Sunrise A350-1000ULR Completes First Flight — Major Step Toward London and New York Nonstop Service

Airbus hit a major milestone for Qantas’ Project Sunrise on 2 June 2026. The first A350-1000ULR (MSN 707) completed its inaugural flight from Toulouse, France—a 3-hour 43-minute sortie that validated the aircraft’s ultra-long-range fuel system and kicked off a two-month certification campaign ahead of first delivery to Qantas in April 2027.

Registered F-WULR for flight testing, the A350-1000ULR climbed to just above 41,000 feet during the test flight. The crew ran general performance checks and validated the new fuel system architecture over the Bay of Biscay. Experimental test pilots Thomas Wilhelm and Anthony Flynn, alongside test flight engineer Laurent Rossignol, led the sortie. They were supported by lead flight test engineers Tuan Do and Alexia Plumet, and ground test engineer Vincent Frayssinet.

Qantas ordered 12 of these aircraft exclusively for Project Sunrise—nonstop routes between Australia and London and New York. Those distances approach 10,000 nautical miles with flight times up to 22 hours. The A350-1000ULR includes a rear centre tank (RCT) adding roughly 20,000 liters of fuel capacity, structural reinforcements for higher maximum takeoff weight, and a cabin designed specifically for ultra-long-haul flying.

“The A350-1000ULR is being developed for Qantas Airways to enable non-stop flights between Sydney and New York and London for the first time ever—a distance of almost 10,000 nautical miles, with flight times of up to 22 hours. This is made possible primarily by the integration into the aircraft structure of an additional rear centre tank, enhancing further the aircraft performance and increasing the range of the aircraft by 1,000 nautical miles,” Airbus said in its first-flight statement.

The RCT design got European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) approval in June 2024—a major regulatory turning point. The modification’s full certification will happen during MSN 707’s two-month test campaign, covering all pumps, gauges, pressure systems, fuel transfer sequencing, cabin ventilation, and temperature control systems. The aircraft will also test a new galley air cooling system (NGAC) that cuts about 300 kilograms of weight and will roll out across the entire A350 Family.

Qantas International CEO Cam Wallace confirmed in June 2024 that the RCT hurdle had been cleared, giving the airline confidence to push ahead toward service entry. But delays in the certification process and Airbus’s redesign of the fuel system architecture shifted first delivery from October 2026 to April 2027, pushing commercial service launch from 2025 to late 2027.

The second A350-1000ULR—the first delivery unit headed to Qantas—is in advanced final assembly and about to leave the paint shop. Qantas expects to stabilize its aircraft delivery sequence by November 2027 when its fifth Project Sunrise frame arrives. The airline needs three aircraft to launch a single ultra-long-haul route.

The cabin seats 238 passengers across four classes: six First Class Suites, 52 Business Suites, 40 Premium Economy seats with 40-inch pitch, and 140 Economy seats at 33-inch pitch. Business class uses Safran Unity seating, Premium Economy has the Safran Z535i, and Economy features Recaro R3 units. A wellness zone lets passengers move around on flights exceeding 20 hours, and complimentary high-speed Wi-Fi covers all cabins.

Qantas will announce the first Project Sunrise destination—London or New York—and commercial launch timing at an event at Airbus headquarters in Toulouse in June 2026. The airline’s Perth-London route, running since 2018 with standard A350-1000s, regularly hits load factors above 90 percent, showing strong demand for the expanded ultra-long-haul network exists.

At end of April 2026, the A350 Family had 1,579 orders from 68 customers with over 700 aircraft in service across 41 operators.