Qantas’ A350-1000ULR Completes Record 24-Hour Test Flight From Australia to France
TOULOUSE, France (July 29, 2026) — An Airbus A350-1000ULR built for Qantas landed in Toulouse on Tuesday after a nonstop test flight from Melbourne lasting 24 hours and 24 minutes, marking one of the longest and most demanding certification flights ever undertaken by a commercial airliner.
The aircraft, registered F-WULR and known internally as Vega, covered approximately 12,460 nautical miles — more than 23,000 kilometers — without stopping. It is the first of 12 A350-1000ULRs Airbus is building for Qantas as part of the airline’s Project Sunrise initiative, which aims to launch nonstop flights between Australia’s east coast and cities including London and New York.
Return Leg Took a Different Route
The flight was the return leg of a round trip that began the week before, when the same aircraft flew from Toulouse to Melbourne in 19 hours and 13 minutes. That outbound journey followed a fairly direct southeasterly path over the Mediterranean, the Middle East, India and Malaysia.
For the return, Airbus and Qantas sent the aircraft the opposite way. After departing Melbourne at 17:27 local time on July 27, the jet flew northeast across the Pacific, over the United States and Canada, then across the Atlantic and over the United Kingdom before landing in Toulouse at 09:51 on July 28. The crew, made up of an Airbus flight team and two Qantas pilots, experienced two sunrises and two sunsets during the journey.
Flight-tracking site Flightradar24 said the flight was among the most closely followed in its history, with more than 120,000 people monitoring its progress online. The aircraft carried out a brief go-around before landing in Toulouse.
An Aircraft Built for Distance
The A350-1000ULR is a modified version of Airbus’ standard A350-1000, fitted with an additional 20,000-liter fuel tank in the rear center section. Airbus says the added capacity extends the aircraft’s range by around 1,000 nautical miles beyond the standard model’s 9,000 nm range.
Qantas first challenged Airbus and Boeing in 2017 to develop an aircraft capable of flying such distances nonstop. Airbus’ response became the basis for Project Sunrise, Qantas’ plan to operate nonstop service between Australia and destinations in Europe and North America. The airline’s A350-1000ULRs will be configured with 238 seats, the lowest passenger density of any A350 variant currently in service.
Data Collection, Not Just Distance
According to Airbus, the flight test campaign — which began in June near the manufacturer’s Toulouse headquarters — is focused on gathering data on fuel system performance, cabin noise levels and air circulation over extended flight durations, in addition to confirming the aircraft’s range capability.
Qantas has said it is also studying how a flight of this length affects passengers, given that a future Australia-to-UK route on this aircraft would become the longest scheduled commercial flight in the world.
Delivery and Launch Timeline
Qantas expects to take delivery of its first A350-1000ULR in April 2027, with four additional aircraft following in quick succession. The airline has said three aircraft will be required to operate regular scheduled service on each of its two planned ultra-long-haul routes.
The first Project Sunrise route is scheduled to launch in October 2027. Qantas has said tickets for Sydney-to-London flights will go on sale in February 2027.
