Qantas’s most famous flight numbers are getting a new job. From October 2027, QF1 and QF2 will fly between Sydney and London without a stop for the first time. It is the launch of Project Sunrise, the airline’s programme of ultra-long-haul flights from Australia’s east coast, and Qantas says it will save customers up to four hours compared with today’s service. Tickets are scheduled to go on sale from February 2027.
Eighty Years of the Kangaroo Route
When Qantas began flying from Sydney to London in 1947, the journey took four days and seven stops. Since then, aircraft from the Lockheed Constellation to the Boeing 747 and the Airbus A380 have worked the route that became known as the Kangaroo Route, and QF1 and QF2 have been the flight numbers most closely tied to it.
Anyone who prefers to break the journey still can. The existing Sydney to London service via Singapore continues under the new flight numbers QF5 and QF6. To free them up, the seasonal flights between Perth and Rome that carry those numbers today become QF105 and QF106.
The Aircraft
The flights will be operated by specially configured Airbus A350-1000ULR aircraft. An additional fuel tank of 20,000 litres gives them a range of more than 16,000 kilometres and allows up to 22 hours in the air. Qantas will take twelve of them, each with 238 seats in four cabins. The first test aircraft is in the final stages of its flight test programme, and Qantas expects to receive its first aircraft in April 2027.
London is the first Project Sunrise route, and New York follows from mid-2028. Our article on the New York route has the details of all four cabins, including the six First suites and the Wellbeing Zone.
Qantas, Sydney–London non-stop, QF1 and QF2, from October 2027 · qantas.com
Roger Hohl
Roger Hohl has been at the helm of Luxvisor since 2006. From his base in Switzerland he travels to test what the luxury travel industry promises, from the seat at 40,000 feet to the last course of a tasting menu, and writes about it with an independent eye.
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