The A350 landed in Toulouse 24 hours and 24 minutes after leaving Melbourne as airline plans direct London serviceQantas completed what is believed to be the longest-ever commercial flight when its Airbus jet landed in Toulouse on Tuesday after a flight from Melbourne lasting 24 hours and 24 minutes.The flight,
Martin Farrer and agencies 
Qantas completed what is believed to be the longest-ever commercial flight when its Airbus jet landed in Toulouse on Tuesday after a flight from Melbourne lasting 24 hours and 24 minutes.
The flight, which triggered a surge in online tracking, is part of the airline’s Project Sunrise in which it plans to use a new A350 jet to fly non-stop from Australia to London.
The specially adapted A350-1000ULR airliner is due to debut with the Australian carrier’s nonstop Sydney-London route from 2027.
Airbus said the aircraft, which boasts a extra fuel tank, remained in the air for 24 hours and 24 minutes, covering 23,075 km (14,338 miles) in a route over the Pacific and Atlantic oceans without stopping, before landing at the plane’s factory in Toulouse in south-west France.
Tuesday’s flight is thought to be the longest ever by a commercial plane, beating the the previous record of 22 hours and 42 minutes, set by a Boeing 777-200LR in 2005 between Hong Kong and London via the Pacific in 2005
In a test last week, the plane flew from Toulouse to Melbourne via the Indian Ocean in just over 19 hours.
Flight-tracking provider Flightradar24 said the trip was the second-most-tracked flight ever on its channels – behind a 2024 flight carrying Queen Elizabeth II’s coffin – with more than 3.6 million people following its progress northwards via Canada.
Qantas has ordered 12 modified A350-1000ULR aircraft, designed to connect Australia’s east coast with London and New York in about 20 hours.
The services aim to turn what was
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Qantas expects to operate daily nonstop flights between Sydney and London from October 2027.
