Qantas to launch Sydney-New York ultra long-haul flight in mid-2028, cutting travel time to 18 hours

Travellers will be able to fly between Sydney and New York in just 18 hours from mid-2028 when Qantas launches its second ultra long-haul route, cutting at least three hours from the travel time.

The route will be the second in Qantas’ Project Sunrise expansion plans, after new Sydney to London direct flights to begin in October 2027.

It would be the first commercial direct flight from Kingsford-Smith airport to New York’s JFK airport. Qantas currently offers flights from Sydney to New York with a stopover in Los Angeles, which take 21 hours and typically cost more than $1,400 one way or more than $1,900 return.

Qantas has not disclosed prices for the Project Sunrise routes. It has previously said ticket prices are facing upward pressure.

Tickets for the Sydney to New York route are set to go on sale in August 2027, Qantas said. It has not specified which month flights will begin. When it announced the London route launch date, the company said it would reveal launch timings in 2027.

Qantas is planning to unveil more 20-hour direct flights from Perth in future but has abandoned references to previous hopes to run routes from Brisbane or Melbourne.

The company has ordered 12 Airbus A350–1000ULRs, fitted with extra fuel tanks, which can fly over 16,000km and up to 22 hours nonstop. The first is expected to arrive in Australia in April 2027.

The planes were specifically designed to fly up to 22 hours nonstop for Qantas, to complete some of the longest commercial flights in the world. A test model in July completed a 24-hour, 24-minute flight from Melbourne to Airbus’ manufacturing facility in Toulouse, France, believed to be the longest-ever commercial flight.

Only 140 of the A350–1000ULR’s 238 seats are standard economy. It contains six first-class suites, 52 business suites and 40 premium economy seats.

The company expects the Project Sunrise flights and sustained premium flight demand to increase its earnings by $400m over the next five years, with profit margins to rise from today’s rate of 4% to 10%.

Qantas said demand for its flights in and out of New York have doubled since 2023. Short-term US arrivals to Australia picked up 4% in the year to July 2026 compared with the year prior, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

However, Australians travelling and returning from the US dropped 9% in the same period.

Qantas’ chief executive, Vanessa Hudson, said the flights could change the way Australians travel.

“Reaching New York non-stop completes a vision we set out many years ago, and it’s a moment of enormous pride for the thousands of our people who have been working hard to make Project Sunrise a reality,” she said.

The company is training pilots on its A350 simulator and is teaching engineers about the new aircraft. The company says more than 360 pilots and 1,200 cabin crew will be trained to operate the aircraft by the time the entire fleet has arrived.