Qantas has confirmed non-stop Sydney to New York flights from mid-2028, the second confirmed route in its Project Sunrise ultra long-haul program, with tickets going on sale from August 2027.
Qantas said the new route will cut more than three hours from total travel time compared with current one-stop services.
New York is the second confirmed Project Sunrise route, following non-stop Sydney to London flights, which begin in October 2027.
Qantas first flew to New York in 1958, via Fiji, Honolulu and San Francisco, as part of its inaugural round-the-world service. The airline currently operates a daily one-stop Sydney–New York service via Auckland.
The Project Sunrise flights will use specially configured Airbus A350-1000ULR aircraft fitted with an additional 20,000-litre fuel tank, enabling flights of more than 16,000 kilometres and up to 22 hours non-stop. Qantas will take delivery of 12 of the aircraft, each configured with 238 seats across four cabins.
The first test aircraft is in the final stages of its flight test program and recently completed a 24-hour, 24-minute non-stop flight from Melbourne to Toulouse – according to Qantas, the longest flight by a commercial airliner to date. The first aircraft is due for delivery to Qantas in April 2027.
US visitor arrivals up
Qantas said visitor arrivals from the United States are up five per cent year-on-year, and demand for Sydney–New York travel on Qantas has nearly doubled since 2023. The airline said intent to book ultra long-haul flights has risen from 58 per cent to 70 per cent since February 2026, reaching 80 per cent among premium travellers.
Since 2018, nearly two million passengers have flown Qantas’s existing non-stop long-haul routes – Perth to London, Rome and Paris, Melbourne to Dallas, and Auckland to New York – which the airline said record its highest customer satisfaction scores on its international network.
Qantas Group chief executive Vanessa Hudson said the New York route was “a defining moment for Australia and the US”.
“Reaching New York non-stop completes a vision we set out many years ago, and it’s a moment of enormous pride for the thousands of our people who have been working hard to make Project Sunrise a reality,” Hudson said.
Ahead of the aircraft’s arrival, Qantas pilots have begun training on Australia’s first A350 simulator in Sydney. More than 360 pilots and 1,200 cabin crew will be trained to operate the Project Sunrise fleet by the time the 12th A350-1000ULR arrives.
