Qantas Sets Longest Commercial Flight — 24 Hours and 24 Minutes
A specially modified Airbus A350-1000ULR flew 24 hours and 24 minutes from Melbourne to Toulouse as part of the "Sunrise" project.
The Australian airline Qantas carried out a historic test flight that lasted more than a day, achieving the longest recorded commercial flight in the history of aviation.
A specially modified Airbus A350-1000ULR was used for this mission. It departed Melbourne on 27 July at 17:27 local time and landed at Airbus's headquarters in Toulouse the next day at 09:52. The total time in the air was 24 hours and 24 minutes, and 23,075 kilometers were flown across the Pacific Ocean, the United States, Canada and the Atlantic Ocean.
Preparations for direct long-distance flights
The flight is part of the "Sunrise" project, which foresees the introduction of direct flights from Australia’s east coast to London and New York from 2027. During the test, data were collected on fuel consumption, systems performance and crew procedures during an extended flight.
Aviation experts and engineers from the manufacturer emphasize that such endurance flights are necessary for aircraft certification and for finalizing operational plans for regular ultra‑long routes. A number of modifications and intensive preparations were made for the successful execution of the mission.
This breaks the previous record of 22 hours and 42 minutes, set in 2005 by a Boeing 777-200LR during a test flight from Hong Kong to London.
Photo: Airbus)
