Qantas has revealed when the world’s longest non-stop commercial flights will take off.The ambitious plan dubbed Project Sunrise has been years in the making to allow Australians on the east coast to fly non-stop to London or New York on board a fleet of custom-designed Airbus A350-1000ULR aircraft.Now, the Australian airline has confirmed the first route and the timing of its inaugural commercial services.Qantas CEO Vanessa Hudson told reporters at Airbus’ headquarters in Toulouse, France, the first non-stop flight from Sydney to London would take off with passengers from October 2027. Flights will go on sale in February. The flight will take about 21 hours.“It’s going to save customers up to four hours compared to the fastest one-stop service that you can take today,” Ms Hudson said. “And it will give our customers something that no other airline in the world can give them. The choice. The choice to fly Sydney to London without stopping anywhere along the way.“On an aircraft that has been specifically designed by Qantas to make these flights possible and with an onboard experience that has been tailored to suit every customer in every cabinet through every stage of the journey.”Qantas first announced Project Sunrise in 2017, and then ordered 12 custom-designed A350-1000ULR aircraft from Airbus in 2022.The first aircraft was supposed to be delivered this year, but the delivery date has been delayed until April 2027.Earlier this month, the first Airbus A350-1000ULR aircraft successfully completed its first test flight of three hours 43 minutes over France and the French Atlantic Coast.It was the first flight of a two-month testing campaign, where it will need to complete about 80 hours of flight testing, undergo extensive on-ground checks and achieve certification for new and redesigned components that will enable the A350 to fly so far.Two airbus flight test pilots, three flight test engineers and one ground test engineer were on board when the aircraft took off for the first time from Toulouse.The flight tested the jet’s specialised fuel system, which includes an additional 20,000 litre rear centre fuel tank that other A350-1000s do not have.Australians on the east coast can currently fly Qantas to Europe via Singapore or Perth.Qantas said they needed to make Project Sunrise economically viable but also an appealing experience for customers.There will be 238 seats on aircraft, which Qantas chief financial officer Rob Marcolina described as “not many”. The existing A350-1000 can seat over 350 passengers depending on what configuration airlines choose (Philippines Airlines has 382 seats).He said Project Sunrise gave Qantas a “significant” advantage to be able to compete globally, as Australia’s location had previously been a disadvantage.“The tyranny of distance has been part of Australia so long and we are conquering it,” Mr Marcolina said.“Saving four hours is a big deal,” he added, highlighting the appeal for families in not having to wake up a sleeping child to change flights.Qantas needs three aircraft to service each route, meaning there will be another six aircraft delivered after the Sydney-London and Sydney-New York routes are up and running.Mr Marcolina said Qantas could put the new A350-1000ULR aircraft on existing routes, such as the Perth-London route to redeploy its Boeing 787-9 elsewhere in the network.Melburnians will be happy to know, Melbourne-London and Melbourne-New York routes have not been ruled out.When news.com.au asked Mr Marcolina why Sydney was chosen to kick start the Project Sunrise flights over Melbourne he said it was the size of the market that gave Sydney the advantage.“Either would have been a great choice, but one of them had to go first and I think we’re really comfortable with it coming out of Sydney,” said the CFO, who is from Melbourne himself but now lives in Sydney.Ms Hudson described the successful launch of the Perth-London route in 2018 as “the most important step on Project Sunrise”.She said Qantas was the only airline in world to see the business case for the A350-1000ULR.However, Airbus EVP of commercial aircraft sales Benoit de Saint-Exupery said there was now interest from other airlines. He explained even if they wanted to purchase one now, they’d be waiting until after 2030 for delivery, meaning Qantas well and truly had a head start.Richard Aboulafia, managing director at AeroDynamic Advisory, said airlines may be keen for ultra-long range variation of the aircraft because of the impact of restricted airspace as we’ve seen caused by conflicts in Russia and the Middle East in recent years.As for customers, he explained it was appealing for travellers to catch one flight and remove the uncertainty of changing to a connecting flight in a large international hub.Mr Marcolina confirmed Qantas’ partnership with Emirates would continue because there will still be customers who want to stop through the Middle East.More to come.Read related topics:QantasSydney