Qantas to launch world’s longest flight from Sydney to London in 2027

Qantas is betting that saving a few hours is worth nearly a full day in the air. The airline says its first nonstop Sydney-London flights will begin in October 2027 and will take up to 22 hours to cover about 17,015 kilometres, making the route the world’s longest scheduled passenger flight.

The service is designed to replace one-stop itineraries that can stretch the trip far longer than a straight line across the globe. Qantas says the direct flight could cut as much as four hours from total journey time, a meaningful gain for business travelers, families on long-haul visits and anyone trying to reduce the friction of a journey that currently demands a connection.

But the tradeoff is severe. A 22-hour flight turns the cabin into a small, sealed environment for almost an entire day, which puts jet lag, sleep disruption and passenger comfort at the center of the experience. Qantas and the University of Sydney Charles Perkins Centre have been studying health, sleep and wellbeing for these ultra-long-haul services, underlining how much of the route’s appeal depends on making endurance more bearable.

The airline’s Project Sunrise effort, first announced in 2017, is aimed at linking Australia’s east coast directly with London and New York for the first time. The name nods to Qantas’s wartime Double Sunrise flights, which stayed airborne long enough for passengers and crew to see two sunrises during the Second World War.

To make the trip possible, Qantas is relying on specially modified Airbus A350-1000ULR aircraft, with an extra fuel tank and a much smaller cabin layout of 238 seats. That reduced capacity signals the economics of the route: less about volume than about range, scarcity and premium demand for nonstop travel that is physically punishing but logistically simpler.

If launched as planned, the Sydney-London service will surpass Singapore Airlines’ Singapore-Newark flight, which currently holds the title of longest regularly scheduled commercial route at about 18 hours and 40 minutes. For travelers, the calculation is stark: four hours saved, one fewer transfer and a seat on the longest flight in the world, at the cost of a journey that pushes the limits of human patience and airline engineering.