Qantas has revealed that its long-awaited Project Sunrise project which will see flights operate nonstop between London and Sydney has been delayed owing to “manufacturing delays”.

The Australian carrier said delivery dates for the modified A350 to be used for Project Sunrise had been delayed by approximately six months, and the aircraft would now arrive in mid-2026.

The airline also said the first A321XLR for Qantas Domestic was delayed by three months, to early-2025.

In 2017, Qantas announced plans to launch direct flights from the east coast of Australia to Europe and New York.

The carrier challenged Boeing and Airbus to deliver an aircraft capable of ultra long-haul flying, and the Airbus A350-1000 was chosen as the preferred aircraft, with 12 aircraft ordered in May 2022.

The inaugural flights are scheduled for take-off starting with Sydney to London and New York.

Elsewhere in the Qantas half-year results, the carrier revealed earnings were 13% lower than the same period of FY23 as fares and capacity “continued to normalise”.

Lower fares contributed to reduced revenue per available seat kilometre, which had around a $600 million impact on profit, while freight yields fell by $146 million.

However, this was mostly offset by contribution from increased flying of $485 million and unwinding of transition costs from the post-COVID restart of $179 million.

Unit cost (excluding fuel) fell by 5.2% year-on-year.

Total flying increased by 25% on an available seat kilometre basis and the group carried 3.3 million more passengers compared with 1H23.

Qantas Group CEO Vanessa Hudson said: “We understand the need for affordable air travel and fares have fallen more than 10 per cent since peaking in late 2022. At the same time, we’ve seen a cost benefit from fewer cancellations and delays, and scale benefits as more international flying returns.

“Our people have been instrumental in the initial recovery we’re seeing and I thank them sincerely. The journey we’re on will take time, but the spirit they are bringing is fantastic and it’s made us optimistic about what we can achieve together.”
Subscribe to the FINN weekly newsletter