An Airbus A350-1000ULR aircraft operated by Qantas completed a record-breaking nonstop flight from Melbourne to Toulouse on Tuesday, remaining aloft for 24 hours and 24 minutes. The journey covered 23,075 kilometers across the Pacific and Atlantic oceans without stopping at an intermediate location. This flight is believed to represent the longest commercial flight ever undertaken, exceeding the previous record of 22 hours and 42 minutes, which was set by a Boeing 777–200LR traveling between Hong Kong and London in 2005.
The flight was part of an ongoing test campaign for Airbus’s two-month evaluation of the aircraft, which commenced in June. The specially modified jet features an extra fuel tank to enable extended-range operations. A separate test flight completed earlier took the aircraft from Toulouse to Melbourne via the Indian Ocean in slightly more than 19 hours. The exceptional duration of the Melbourne-to-Toulouse flight generated significant public interest, with flight-tracking service Flightradar24 reporting that over 3.6 million users monitored its progress. The flight became the second-most-tracked journey in the platform’s history, behind only a 2022 flight carrying Queen Elizabeth II’s coffin.
Qantas has ordered 12 of the modified A350-1000ULR aircraft as part of its Project Sunrise initiative, which aims to establish direct service between Australia’s east coast and London. The aircraft configuration carries an additional 20,000 liters of fuel capacity and accommodates 238 passengers. The first aircraft is scheduled for delivery in April 2027, with nonstop Sydney-London service expected to commence in October 2027. These flights are projected to reduce travel time on the historical “Kangaroo Route” from approximately five days to between 19 and 21 hours, depending on routing and wind conditions. The service will also extend to New York routes.
Article Attribution | Read More at Article Source
Article summary produced by Claude AI