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Ultra-long-haul flights have exploded in popularity over the past decade, largely because the current generation of long-range widebodies is exceptionally fuel-efficient. Recent advances in efficiency and capability are now allowing Qantas to launch Project Sunrise, two ultra-long-haul nonstop routes that will both be longer than today’s longest flight (Singapore to New York-JFK) by a wide margin. The longest of these, Sydney to London Heathrow, will last over 20 hours.
Qantas placed its official order for the Project Sunrise aircraft in 2022, selecting the Airbus A350-1000ULR after an intense competition between the A350 and the Boeing 777X. What’s unusual is that the 777X has been relatively popular while being equipped with the world’s most advanced jet engines. However, Qantas still selected the older A350-1000 to operate the world’s longest flights, a move that solidifies the Airbus A350’s position as the world’s ultimate long-range airliner.
What Project Sunrise Entails
The core of Project Sunrise is the launch of two new ultra-long-haul nonstop flights, connecting Sydney to London Heathrow and New York JFK. The longer of the two, Sydney to London Heathrow, will be 9,188 NM (17,016 km), and will also be the first Project Sunrise route to launch in October 2027. The first A350-1000ULR will arrive in April and will operate short-haul crew familiarization flights, while the London route will launch once Qantas has three examples on property.
The Sydney-to-New York route will be the second route to launch, and Qantas will subsequently place the A350-1000ULR throughout its current route network, mainly displacing Boeing 787s to launch new routes. While Qantas has previously stated that it will also connect Melbourne to London and New York, these routes appear to be less of a priority based on Qantas’s most recent announcements. They may only come with the final A350-1000ULR deliveries as the carrier increases its focus on Sydney.
Flight times from Sydney to London will last over 20 hours, or about two hours longer than the Singapore-JFK service. Some have expressed skepticism over whether passengers would prefer a 20-hour nonstop over a 24-hour one-stop route. However, there was similar skepticism a decade ago about the commercial viability of 17 to 18-hour flights, like Singapore-JFK or Qantas’s own Perth-London route. By and large, these routes have proven popular with passengers and have become quite lucrative.
The A350-1000ULR Versus The 777X
Technically, the Airbus A350-900ULR could likely operate the Project Sunrise routes, but Qantas desired more capability. The A350-900ULR is a fairly minimal modification to the A350-900, featuring weight reductions and software changes to enable more fuel to be carried in the plane’s center tank. With a deactivated forward cargo hold, it essentially trades capability for fuel. Qantas desired a larger aircraft that could carry significantly more payload than the A350-900ULR.
Airbus offered the A350-1000ULR, while 
Boeing offered the 777X. Initial discussions centered around an optimized version of the smaller 777-8. It’s unclear what exactly Boeing planned for the 777-8, but as delays with the program continued, the 777-9 also came into the picture. While the plane’s current brochure range is too short for Project Sunrise, the 777-9 could have received a higher gross weight and auxiliary fuel tanks to make the route, albeit with a reduced capacity.
Aircraft | Maximum Takeoff Weight | Typical Range |
|---|---|---|
Airbus A350-1000ULR | 322 tons | 9,700 NM (18,000 km) |
Airbus A350-900ULR | 280 tons | 9,700 NM (18,000 km) |
Boeing 777-8 | 365 tons | 9,500 NM (17,590 km) |
Airbus A350-1000 | 319 tons (current), 322 tons (future) | 9,000 NM (16,700 km) with 322-ton MTOW |
Airbus A350-900 | 283 tons (latest NPS rating) | 8,500 NM (15,750 km) with 283-ton MTOW |
Boeing 777-9 | 351 tons | 8,000 NM (14,820 km) |
It’s generally believed that this was offered as an interim solution until the 777-8 was ready, and it was even reported that Boeing also offered the 777-200LR as another alternative solution. Ultimately, Qantas announced the A350 as the preferred choice for Project Sunrise in 2019 for flights to commence in 2023, and then placed its official order in 2022 (the order was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic). The timeline is crucial because the 777X is one of the most delayed aircraft programs in recent history.
Why The 777X & Its Engines Were A Risky Choice
The Boeing 777X will be exclusively powered by the General Electric GE9X. While the Rolls-Royce Trent XWB on the A350 is a remarkable engine, the GE9X will be unrivaled in terms of thermal efficiency, in large part due to the extensive use of advanced materials like ceramic matrix composites. It can almost be considered half a generation ahead of the Trent XWB/Trent 1000/General Electric GEnx. However, the GE9X and the 777X are also unproven.
Qantas’s desired timeline for Project Sunrise would have made it one of the first operators of the 777X. While General Electric has a proven track record in delivering dependable large turbofan engines, any new engine experiences teething issues upon introduction, which can be problematic to deal with. What’s more, early production of the GE9X and the 777X will be limited (as is the case with any new aircraft), resulting in slow deliveries during the 777X’s first few years.
Aircraft Program | Variants | Engines | Launch | Entry Into Service | Production Rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Boeing 787 Dreamliner | 787-8 787-9 787-10 | General Electric GEnx Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 | 2004 | 2011 (787-8) | Eight per month |
Airbus A350 XWB | A350-900 A350-1000 A350F | Rolls-Royce Trent XWB | 2006 | 2015 (A350-900) | Six per month |
Airbus A330neo | A330-800 A330-900 | Rolls-Royce Trent 7000 | 2014 | 2018 (A330-900) | Four per month |
Boeing 777X | 777-8 777-9 777-10 | General Electric GE9X | 2013 | 2027 (777-9 projected) | One per month (future four per month) |
In comparison, the Trent XWB is a proven motor that has been remarkably trouble-free, while the A350 is an established type. While deliveries of the A350 have currently been slow due to supply-chain constraints, this has been affecting the entire airline industry and is hardly unique to the A350. As a whole, it’s less risky to go with the aircraft and engine type that has been in service for nearly a decade compared to the brand-new plane/engine.
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The Problem With The 777X For Project Sunrise
The GE9X will be an excellent engine once it enters service, but this doesn’t mean that the 777X will burn less fuel than the A350-1000. The aircraft still retains a heavy-metal fuselage, while also featuring massive wings. It’s a fundamentally larger, heavier plane that will be significantly thirstier than the A350-1000, and the 777-9 addresses this through its massive capacity, giving it competitive per-seat economics.
The 777-8, however, is smaller than either, while costing almost the same to operate as the 777-9, making it an uneconomical aircraft. The advantage of the 777-8 is its field performance and range, but for Project Sunrise, the Airbus A350-1000 is more than capable enough with the ULR improvements. As a whole, the 777-8 has been an extremely slow seller due to these issues. In addition, the 777X’s delays were also very problematic.
In 2019 (the same year as when Qantas publicly selected the A350), Boeing planned to start delivering the 777-9 in 2021, while the 777-8 was delayed to 2023, the same year that Qantas intended to start Project Sunrise flights at the time. At the time, there were already concerns about whether the timeline would stick, and the 777-9’s entry into service is now set for 2027.
Meanwhile, development of the 777-8 has been paused due to a lack of demand, with Boeing instead focusing on the 777-9 and then the 777-8F as these models are more popular. For Qantas, relying on the 777-8 would have been significantly riskier than going with a derivative of the in-service A350-1000.
What The A350-1000ULR Brings To The Table
It has the same ‘ULR’ designation as the A350-900ULR, but the engineering to create the A350-1000ULR is closer to how Airbus created the A321XLR. Key to the plane’s range is the addition of a new 20,000-liter integrated Rear Centre Tank, derived from the design of the RCT on the A321XLR. In addition, the A350-1000ULR features a higher Maximum Takeoff Weight of 322 tons, which will be available on all future A350-1000s. However, Qantas has an exclusivity deal on the A350-1000ULR variant specifically.
To further extend the plane’s range, Qantas is installing just 238 seats, making it the lowest-capacity A350-1000 configuration in the world. There will be six first class suites built by Safran, 52 business class seats based on the Safran Unity, 40 premium economy seats based on the Safran Z535i, and just 140 economy seats based on the Recaro R3. In addition, the A350-1000ULR will also come with a new crew rest facility for the pilots, of which there will be four on each flight.
Some have questioned Qantas’s decision to install economy seats on the A350-1000ULR, considering that Singapore Airlines’ A350-900ULRs lack this cabin. However, Qantas is catering to a much larger leisure and VFR (visiting friends/relatives) market than Singapore Airlines, and it specifically bought the A350-1000ULR for its size as well as its payload capacity. Economy was always part of the plan, and Qantas will be configuring the economy seats with more legroom while also offering an onboard ‘Wellness Zone.’
