Sydney to New York flights: Qantas announces new Project Sunrise route to travel non-stop to US

Qantas will soon fly non-stop between Sydney and New York, changing the way Australians can travel to the US.

In an announcement on Wednesday, the airline said it would be a world-first route.

The flight duration will be around 18 hours, cutting about three hours from existing flights from the east coast, all of which include stop-overs.

The first flight will take off in mid-2028, with the first tickets set to go on sale in August, 2027.

This is the second route under Project Sunrise, following an earlier announcement from Qantas launching non-stop flights from Sydney to London.

Those flights are scheduled to begin in October, 2027.

To travel the hefty distance, the Project Sunrise routes will be onboard Airbus A350-1000ULR aircraft, which have been fitted with an additional 20,000 litre fuel tank.

The 238 seat planes are capable of travelling 22 hours non-stop and covering more than 16,000 kilometres.

The first of the 12 planes to be delivered to Qantas will arrive in April, 2027.

Qantas Group chief executive Vanessa Hudson said it had been a long time coming.

“Conquering the tyranny of distance has been part of who Qantas is from the very beginning,” she said.

“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.

“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.”