Direct Sydney to New York services are expected to take 18 hours, cutting around three hours off the current Sydney-Auckland-New York service offered by Qantas.
“Conquering the tyranny of distance has been part of who Qantas is from the very beginning,” said Qantas CEO, Vanessa Hudson.
“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.
“New York has always captured the imagination, and for generations, reaching it from Australia has meant breaking up the journey somewhere along the way.”
Hudson said the Project Sunrise route to New York “changes what’s possible for travel between our two countries”.
“Flying these distances is only worth doing if our customers arrive feeling their best, and that belief has shaped everything we’ve built,” she said.
“Over the past decade, working alongside experts, we’ve designed the aircraft and the onboard experience around the science of ultra long-haul travel, from the lighting to the meals to a world-first wellbeing zone.
“This is a fundamentally different way to fly.”
The announcement of non-stop services between Sydney and New York follows a commitment to begin non-stop services between Sydney and London from October next year, with those flights running up to 22 hours.
Qantas will operate Project Sunrise flights on both routes on new Airbus A350-1000ULR aircraft that have an extra 20,000L fuel tank and 238 seats, including six first class suites, 52 business class suites, 40 seats in premium economy and 140 seats in economy.
The airline is expecting to receive the first of 12 Airbus A350-1000ULR aircraft next April. The first aircraft recently undertook a historic flight lasting 24 hours and 24 minutes from Melbourne to Toulouse in France.
The Project Sunrise flights between Sydney and New York will go on sale in August 2027.
