Qantas have announced that they have put Project Sunrise on hold. This is not at all surprising, considering the current downturn the aviation industry is experiencing.
The Australian airline has been promoting the potential for the non-stop services for a while now. With things coming to within a whisker of fruition, will it actually go ahead?
What Is Project Sunrise?
For those living under a rock, Project Sunrise is the Qantas plan to link Australia, the UK and the east coast of the USA with non-stop flights. Services from Sydney, Melbourne or Brisbane to London would take around 20 hours, becoming the longest flights in the world.
-
- The winner of the competition!
Competition for the aircraft order between Boeing and Airbus was very intense. Boeing offered the 777X, while Airbus offered new derivatives of their A350. When the Boeing 777-8 was put on hold, things transpired which indicated Airbus might get the order. In December this proved correct as Qantas selected the A350-1000 for the flights.
Project Sunrise On Hold – Will It Happen?
You would be forgiven for thinking that it’s all dead in the water with Project Sunrise on hold. There is some evidence to support the fact it will go ahead.
First, Qantas CEO Alan Joyce said today, “We do think there is a huge potential for Project Sunrise but the time is not right now given the impact that Covid-19 has had on world travel. But we do think there is still a good business case for it and a good opportunity for it.”
-
- Project Sunrise will have entirely new seats in all four classes, so the current business class, seen here, will be replaced
The success of the non-stop Perth to London flights also points to the fact that things will go ahead. These flights have the highest customer satisfaction scores on the Qantas network, despite being 16 plus hours non-stop. Load factors are consistently above 90% despite tickets attracting a premium.
With the Australian public wholeheartedly behind the concept of flying direct, plus the fact they are happy to pay more to do so, points to Qantas sticking with Project Sunrise.
Overall Thoughts
With Project Sunrise on hold, there is no time frame now on when the order for the Airbus A350-1000 will be placed. The Qantas CEO says it won’t be this year, so it would mean an order sometime in 2021. This presumably will mean the initial flights will be pushed back from 2023 to perhaps 2024 or 2025.
Either way, I fully expect Project Sunrise to go ahead. It will provide Qantas with the unique selling point of being the only carrier with non-stop services from Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane to London, Paris, Frankfurt and New York. I’m also dying for it to go ahead as the competitive response from other airlines on the Australia to Europe route will be interesting to see.
What do you think will happen with Project Sunrise on hold? Will it go ahead or do you think that’s the end of the story and it will never happen? Thank you for reading and if you have any comments or questions, please leave them below.
To never miss a post, follow me on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
All my flight and lounge reviews are indexed here so check them out!
Featured image by BriYYZ from Toronto, Canada via Wikimedia Commons.
I can see the JFK-SYD happening down the road. I expect it to be like the Singapore EWR-SIN, with a similar Business & premium economy cabin. I don’t see the expected need for a third cabin, economy, happening post Covid 19,
Well, Qantas have said that the Project Sunrise aircraft will have four classes. However, you could well be right, as it will all depend on the economics post pandemic. Thanks for your thoughts – we’ll see how it all pans out as time progresses.