Qantas CEO Alan Joyce believes the pandemic will ultimately increase demand for point-to-point travel. That’s especially important if Qantas moves ahead with its “Project Sunrise” ultra-longhaul flight program.
Qantas Affirms Project Sunrise 2024 Target
Speaking Eurocontrol’s Aviation StraightTalk Live, Joyce was asked about the future of the program in light of the pandemic and the extended shutdown of Australian borders. Joyce expressed optimism that the program would continue.
“We still want to revisit it at the end of ’21, with the potential of doing it in ’24, probably, and onwards.”
Project Sunrise is the code name for Qantas’ plan to launch ultra-long-haul service from Sydney and Melbourne to key destinations around the globe currently not reachable nonstop. That includes:
- Cape Town
- Chicago
- Frankfurt
- London
- New York
- Paris
- Rio de Janeiro
Joyce added that the project would be more financially viable because it would require several aircraft, creating a sub-fleet large enough to efficiently service and maintain.
Prior to the pandemic, Qantas’ daily 9,010-mile Perth – London service onboard the Boeing 787-9 clocked in at over 17 hours when flying west, but also proved to be the most profitable flight in the Qantas network.
Rather than the Dreamliner, Qantas will use specially-configured Airbus A350-1000 for its Project Sunrise service.
You can watch the interview here:
CONCLUSION
Should Qantas move ahead with Project Sunrise in 2024, we would see records broken for the longest flight in the world. While many would view a 20+ hours flight between London or New York and Sydney as pure torture, I think Joyce is onto something when he stresses a renewed customer desire for point-to-point service.
Will Qantas’ Project Sunrise take off?
(H/T: Travel Update)
While this would be tolerable in business or first class, it sounds like pure torture in economy. California to Europe pushes my limits in the back of the plane and, for the same fare, I’d likely choose a layover in Chicago or NYC to break up the flight, walk around, and perhaps visit a bar or lounge.
Matthew – some of the city choices whilst sounding glamorous (Paris, rio) seem odd to me
Do you think these are the top cities for traffic to/from SYD/MEL that are not currently served nonstop?
Maybe Frankfurt is for Germans going to Australia.
Paris more for Aussies going to Paris
But how much business traffic between rio and Sydney?
I would think Rome and Athens make more sense then Frankfurt and Paris (huge Italian/greek communities and ties in Australia)
Low yield ethnic tourists from Australia going to Rome or Athens arent going to pay for a longhaul flight like this.
Frankfurt is a finance capital and central for all of Europe. Even though Lufthansa isnt in an official alliance with Qantas, it still will feed it, just as Lufthansa feeds all airlines at Frankfurt (you’d be surprised if you knew how many people Lufthansa feeds airlines such as American and Delta at Frankfurt). Will that work? Who knows, but Qantas would have a better sense than you or me, and the fact that they put it out there as an option speaks volumes.
Same with Paris – high end demand, connectivity.
I do share the concerns with Brazil though. I’d expect to see Sao Paulo before Rio, mainly because Sao Paulo is the larger city, is richer, and has the business ties.
But who knows? All speculation at this point.
Def agree with all of your points. Especially on Rio. I sort of stopped to see if I read that right about Rio, as S.P. would indeed be far more sustainable for these flights. Very odd.
Why is Cape Town on the list? I used to take QF 63/64 between SYD-JNB a couple times a year when I lived in Sydney. Can’t recall the total flight time but I want to say 12 hrs approximately. What makes Cape Town that unreachable with the current 787 or A350s?
I do think we will see London/New York first and perhaps exclusively for quite some time.
If we’re relying on business traffic to make these work then beyond NY and London I can’t see the rest eventuating
How much business travel is there between Germany and Australia, France and Australia, Brasil and Australia
It doesn’t seem like much of a market pre pandemic. And post pandemic – about 85% less