Qantas to Kick Off Project Sunrise in 2024 - By Daisy BARRO

 

After a year-long review on the possibilities of the world’s longest business flight in a post COVID-19 world, Qantas Group is bracing itself to re-launch Project Sunrise in 2024 – a project which involves the implementation of “globe-striding” flights from one travel destination to another without stopovers.

According to Qantas Group CEO Alan Joyce, 18-20 hours-long flights in the clean and controlled environment of an Airbus A350 will have a lot of appeal to premium flyers once international travel fully resumes; opining that extra-long haul flights without stopovers will be “the way of the future”.

It should be noted that Project Sunrise was suspended during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic – barely weeks before the airline could place an order for the Airbus A350-1000s which were designated to fly the marathon routes. Qantas now plans to revisit this decision by December of this year.

“We still want to revisit the decision at the end of 2021, with the hopes of implementing it from 2024 onwards”, said Joyce during an Aviation Straight Talk Live online event recently.

He went further to divulge that the A350s to be used for this project had been designed for ultra-long haul flights and feature six spacious private First Class suites set in two rows of 1-1-1 which he described as “Super First Class.”

The aircraft will also feature relatively large Business and Premium Economy cabins with the much sought after “stretch spaces” included for all classes of passengers. To achieve this, the aircraft will contain fewer seats – but with more of these seats in the Premium Class; a feat the airline has already achieved with its Perth-London International network route.

Qantas is positive that Project Sunrise will be a success because of the economics involved; the scale of the project and feedback the Group has already received from clients.