Qantas Airways has entered the Guinness Book of World Records after the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) verified that the airline’s Airbus A350-1000ULR passenger liner completed the world’s longest commercial flight from Melbourne to Toulouse.
On July 27, 2026, an Airbus A350-1000ULR, which stands for Ultra Long Range, took off from Melbourne, Australia bound for Toulouse, France. Aboard the aircraft were three Airbus test pilots, two Qantas pilots, five Airbus flight engineers, two Airbus design engineers, and an FAI representative for verification monitoring, which was also provided by flightradar24.
In order to cover the 12,503-nautical-mile (14,388-mile, 23,155-km) voyage, the baseline A350 aircraft was equipped with a new rear center fuel tank with a capacity of up to 20,900 liters (5,521 gal) along with upgraded fuel lines, pumps, temperature-monitoring equipment, and a nitrogen inerting system to prevent fires and explosions. The upshot is that the Airbus A350-1000ULR has an operational range that’s extended by up to 1,000 nautical miles (1,151 miles, 1,852 km).
Not only was the range extended, but the key load-bearing points around the center wing box, along with the undercarriage, were reinforced, and the maximum takeoff weight increased to allow for greater payloads. Meanwhile, the Rolls-Royce Trent XWB-97 engines were tweaked for extended low-thrust cruising.
Because the flight took 24 hours and 24 minutes, the cabin was designed to reduce jet lag with special lighting and meal schedules, and was configured with extended crew rest facilities, plus low-density seating of 238 seats to make room for a “wellbeing zone” to allow passengers a place to move and stretch, as well as hydration stations. This is of particular interest to passengers like me who can end up in agony sitting through a 20-minute puddle-jumping flight and can only handle a transatlantic journey by sitting in a forward seat where there’s three feet between my seat and the bulkhead so I can get up regularly.
However, there’s more to the flight than just getting a certificate from the Guinness people. It’s part of an ambitious business plan by Qantas called Project Sunrise.
Qantas
The purpose of Project Sunrise is to establish new non-stop antipodean air routes from Sydney to London and New York as a way to avoid traditional long-range bottlenecks and, ironically, speed up the trip. At present, such flights have to stopover in places like Singapore, Dubai, and Doha, which can add at least four hours to any one-stop trip – assuming that the stopover doesn’t end up with an aggravating delay involving cooling your heels in an uncomfortable terminal drinking disappointing coffee that was brewed sometime around 1975.
According to Qantas, such ultra-long-haul flights are not only faster, but they can be sold at a premium to business and high-end leisure travelers, plus Premium Economy travelers for higher per-seat revenues. Added to this, Qantas will have a temporary monopoly on such flights from eastern Australia until other airlines invest in similar aircraft.
“This achievement reflects the pioneering and innovative spirit that is part of our DNA at Airbus. In responding to the challenge laid down by Qantas, our teams came together to extend the range of the A350-1000 in an efficient and economically viable way to undertake the world’s longest ever commercial flights,” said Lars Wagner, Chief Executive Officer Commercial Aircraft at Airbus. “Flying 12,503 nautical miles non-stop, we have fully proven the aircraft’s capability to fulfill its mission. And the world record was the icing on the cake!”
Source: Qantas
