A Qantas Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner in centenary livery at New York JFK

Qantas Confirms Sydney to New York Nonstop for 2028

by Connor Kerr | Sep 23, 2026 | Mondo dell'aviazione, Notizia | 0 comments

Qantas has been trying to fly from Sydney to New York without stopping for roughly as long as the route has existed. On Wednesday it put a date on it: mid-2028.

The airline confirmed that Sydney to New York will be the second route in Project Sunrise, following Sydney to London in October 2027. Tickets go on sale in August 2027.

Today the same journey runs daily with a stop in Auckland. The nonstop will take more than three hours out of it, which sounds modest until you consider that those three hours are spent descending, taxiing, sitting, and climbing back up again at the far end of an already brutal day.

Informazioni rapide

Itinerario	Sydney to New York, nonstop
Inizio	Mid-2028
Tickets on sale	August 2027
Aeromobili	Airbus A350-1000ULR, 238 seats in four classes
Ordine	Twelve aircraft; first delivery due April 2027
First Sunrise route	Sydney to London, from October 2027
Oggi	Sydney to New York runs daily with a stop in Auckland
Time saved	More than three hours against the current connecting service

The aircraft that makes it possible

The A350-1000ULR is not an off-the-shelf airliner. Qantas has ordered twelve, the first due in April 2027, and each will carry 238 passengers across four cabins.

That number is the whole engineering argument. An A350-1000 in a normal configuration carries considerably more. Fewer seats means less weight, and less weight means more of the take-off allowance can be fuel. Ultra-long-range flying is an exercise in deciding what to leave behind.

Qantas’s own reveal of the Sunrise cabin, watched more than half a million times.

“Introducing a new dawn of travel.”

Qantas — Project Sunrise cabin announcement

The name is not marketing

Project Sunrise refers to the Double Sunrise flights of the Second World War, when Qantas Catalinas crossed the Indian Ocean between Perth and Ceylon on journeys long enough that the crew watched the sun come up twice. Passengers received a certificate for membership of the Rare and Secret Order of the Double Sunrise.

A Qantas Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner at Sydney Airport — The 787-9 opened Qantas’s current generation of ultra-long-haul routes. The A350-1000ULR is the aircraft built specifically to close the last two gaps. Photo: Wikimedia Commons

Eight decades later the constraint is the same one: the aircraft has to carry enough fuel to cross a very large piece of the planet without help, and everything else on board competes with that fuel for weight.

What it means for the route map

Sydney to New York nonstop closes the last genuinely awkward gap in the global network. Australia’s east coast has always been one connection away from the American east coast, which means one more chance to miss a bag, a slot or a night’s sleep.

Whether the economics hold is the interesting question, and the honest answer is that nobody knows yet. Ultra-long-haul routes have a habit of being announced with confidence and quietly withdrawn a few years later — Air Canada cancelled its own longest route this week. Qantas is betting that a premium-heavy cabin on a route with no competition is different.

August 2027 is when passengers get to vote with their credit cards.

Sources: aeroTELEGRAPH; Qantas; Airbus.

Domande frequenti

When will Qantas fly nonstop from Sydney to New York?

From the middle of 2028. Qantas confirmed the route as part of Project Sunrise, with tickets going on sale in August 2027. It will be the airline’s second ultra-long-haul Sunrise route after Sydney to London.

What aircraft will fly Sydney to New York?

A specially configured Airbus A350-1000ULR carrying 238 passengers in four classes. Qantas has ordered twelve of them, with the first delivery scheduled for April 2027. The ULR designation refers to extra fuel capacity for ultra-long-range operations.

How does Qantas fly Sydney to New York now?

Daily, with a stop in Auckland. The nonstop service is expected to cut more than three hours off the current journey time, which is the practical argument for the whole Project Sunrise programme.

What is Project Sunrise?

Qantas’s long-running plan to operate nonstop flights from Australia’s east coast to London and New York. The name references the wartime Double Sunrise flights across the Indian Ocean, which were long enough for crews to see the sun rise twice.

Which Project Sunrise route starts first?

Sydney to London, from October 2027. Sydney to New York follows in mid-2028. The sequencing follows aircraft deliveries, which begin in April 2027.

Why only 238 seats on an A350-1000?

Because weight is the constraint on an ultra-long-range flight. Fewer passengers and a lower cabin density mean more fuel for the same take-off weight, and a cabin designed for people who will be in it for around twenty hours.

How long is the Sydney to New York flight?

Qantas has not published a block time for the nonstop service. The great-circle distance is comparable to Sydney to London, which the airline has described as a flight of about twenty hours, so a similar order of magnitude is reasonable to expect.

Can I fly in a fighter jet instead?

Different kind of long-haul, but yes. MiGFlug flies passengers in the L-39 Albatros, the Hawker Hunter and the MiG-29, including supersonic sorties to the edge of space. Details and pricing are on the MiGFlug flights and prices page.