NON-STOP ULTRA-LONG-HAUL FLIGHTS: British Airways and Turkish Airlines flagged to join Qantas in this quest

It looks like Qantas ‘Project Sunrise‘ ultra-long-haul project is not alone in the non-stop stakes. Project Sunrise will take travellers from the east coast of Australia to almost any capital city in the world without stopping. That includes trips from Sydney to London, New York, and Paris.

At least two more airlines are in contention for ultra-long-haul non-stop fights to Australia

According to Alex Macheras of the ‘On-Air with Dan and Alex’ podcast, at least two other airlines are contemplating ultra-long haul routes to and from Australia. These could rival the proposed Project Sunrise routes.

In the podcast, he mentioned two possibilities. While naming British Airways as investigating the option, he left the other airline unnamed. On the ET website, in an article quoting an interview with Turkish Airlines Bilal Eski, to celebrate Turkish Airlines flights between Sydney and Istanbul (via Kuala Lumpur), the CEO promises direct flights between Sydney or Melbourne and Istanbul using an Airbus A350-1000.

If deliveries go to the deadline and the route takes off in mid-2025, it will likely be a full year before Project Sunrise ferries passengers between the Australian East Coast and the United Kingdom.

The success of ultra-long-haul

The most lucrative route for Qantas at the moment is reported to be its nonstop Perth to London flight on a Boeing 787. Qantas charges a reported 20% premium on fares for this 20+ hour direct flight. It’s no surprise that British Airways and other airlines might want to get in on the act and compete with Qantas.

Although advertised as non-stop, the Qantas flight has a stopover in Perth if you are travelling from Sydney or Melbourne, or Brisbane or Adelaide, for that matter. It is only non-stop from continent to continent, between Australia and the United Kingdom.

So, for most Australians, it is a one-stop route. That stop happens to be in Australia, rather than in Singapore, the stopover for the Qantas A380 route to London.

Project Sunrise offers truly nonstop flying between the east coast of Australia and the United Kingdom. It uses A350-1000 aircraft with additional fuel tanks to extend their range.

Turkish Airlines ultra ultra-long-haul ambitions

The Istanbul-based airline hopes to convert its one-stop, direct flights between Sydney and Melbourne to Istanbul via either Singapore or Kuala Lumpur into truly non-stop flights in late 2025. That’s well ahead of the proposed Project Sunrise start in 2026. Turkish Airlines’ plans depend on it receiving the first aircraft in its order of 15 Airbus A350-1000s. That is scheduled to commence in mid-2025, which should give Turkish some time to bed down the operation and crewing of the aircraft.

But it’s not stopping at rolling out the ultra-long-haul network in Sydney and then Melbourne. It has plans to include Auckland, Buenos Aires, and Santiago in its ultra-long-haul network.

Currently, for Melbourn to Istanbul, Turkish uses a Boeing 787 Dreamliner, but it has to block seats for a reduced passenger capacity due to weight restrictions for the long-haul route. Once the A350-1000s arrive, it will use them on the route.

The A350-1000s will use a new advanced higher capacity Rolls Rouce engine, which will allow full passenger loads.

2PAXfly Takeout

It looks like the development of an ultra-long-haul version of the A350-1000 that Qantas provoked Airbus to produce is going to be used by several airlines for similar non-stop purposes. Despite the hullabaloo over Project Sunrise, Qantas looks like it will be pipped at the post by Turkish for non-stop flights to Europe—admittedly to its eastern edge of Istanbul.

Turkish and Qantas look like they are not alone. British Airways is looking at competing on the London to East Coast Australia route. That 20% price hike that Qantas plans to charge for the 18+ hour flights might get challenged. Competion from other airlines looks like it might be cut those margins.

The A350-1000 might be a game-changer in the way we conceive of ultra-long-haul flight. It will make Australia and Europe, or Australia and the east coast USA, less than a day away. That’s the closest we will be, pending the re-launch of supersonic flights.