After a pandemic-induced break of nearly two years, Qantas is to resume work on its ambitious plan to launch direct ultra-long-haul flights from Sydney and Melbourne to London, Paris and New York.
Project Sunrise, as the plan is known internally within Qantas, was progressing nicely in late 2019 and into early 2020 but was quickly shelved when Australia closed its international borders to keep out COVID-19.
On Thursday, Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce confirmed that work on project Sunrise had now resumed and that demand for the flights was now even stronger than before the pandemic.
Qantas had selected the Airbus A350-1000 as its preferred aircraft for project Sunrise but hadn’t signed a formal order when it shelved the plans. The airline said it intended to order up to 12 A350’s which could cost as much as US $4.39 billion at list value.
Airbus had given Qantas extra time to sign a formal order and secure its place on the waitlist for A350’s but that has now been lost. Qantas will require specially adapted A350’s fitted with additional fuel tanks to make the more than 19-hour flights possible.
The airline still needs to win regulatory approval to increase the maximum flying hours of pilots, while also convincing pilots to agree on a new contract. Joyce has previously claimed he would simply hire cheaper foreign pilots to operate the flights if local unions don’t sign up to the plan.
The original plan had been for Qantas to start taking delivery of its A350’s from early 2023 but Qantas has not commented on what the updated timeline to start project Sunrise flights might look like.
“We know the road to recovery still has some way to go. But as Australia completes its shift to truly living with COVID, we can see things are stabilising,” Joyce commented on Thursday as the airline announced its half-year results.
The carrier reported a loss of A$245 million but said it expected domestic capacity to jump to 68 per cent of pre-COVID levels by the third quarter. International capacity, however, remains severely suppressed and will only reach 22 per cent of pre-pandemic levels by the third quarter.
Qantas is currently flying between Sydney and Melbourne to London with a refuelling stop in Darwin.
We have had direct flights since many years. What you mean is nonstop flights.