Traffic #402 | Project Sunrise, WSI, US Coast Guard

​The crew onboard included four Airbus test pilots and five dedicated flight test engineers, who monitored the plane’s performance throughout to ensure the product would be suitable for passengers in time for launch. Also onboard were two Qantas pilots, Captain Andrew Coull and Captain David Summergreene.

​The aircraft has yet to receive its final certification from Europe’s aviation regulator, EASA; however, these flights mark a major milestone in that process. Airbus revealed that the main goal of these flights was to demonstrate that the aircraft can sustain the extended flight times of Qantas’ ambitious Project Sunrise along with all necessary accommodations for delays, diversions and emergencies. Along with fuel management, these flights were also intended to test cabin comfort and air conditioning levels – vital for keeping stir-crazy passengers comfortable for their near-23-hour journeys – as well as crew rest facilities.

​The test flight is thought to be the longest commercial flight in recent history, though there are certainly other examples that could clinch that title depending on what metrics or caveats are used. What isn’t up for debate is that, once operational, Qantas’ Project Sunrise flights will absolutely and consistently mark the longest commercial flights in the global marketplace, with 22-hour flights between Australia’s east coast cities and the far-flung cities of London, Paris, and New York. These locations are essentially as far away as you can get from home, before you start coming back!

​In advance of the test flight, the modified A350 test-bed was sent to Melbourne from Airbus’ Toulouse-based factory on a shorter 19-hour-and-10-minute flight. F-WULR departed from Toulouse at 7:33am local time on 23 July, and landed on Australian soil at Tullamarine at 10:46am on 24 July. Both test flights were among the most-tracked in history, according to FlightRadar24, with the MEL-TLS odyssey becoming the second-most-tracked flight ever on the platform.

​Just one month before these major flights, the flagship specially modified Airbus A350-1000ULR completed a much shorter but equally significant flight: its first-ever test flight. Taking off from Toulouse on 2 June 2026, the aircraft performed its first three-hour and 43-minute flight above the French coastline, following earlier grounded engine tests.

​Despite using Melbourne as the hub for its Project Sunrise sandbox, all initial Project Sunrise routes are currently scheduled to depart from Sydney. Tickets for the first Project Sunrise flights between Sydney and London are expected to go on sale in February 2027, with the first flights scheduled to take off in October 2027. Following the Sydney–London operations, the next ultra-long-haul flights are set to connect Sydney and New York, though dates are not yet set in stone.

WSI Open for (Freight) Business

​Western Sydney International (Nancy-Bird Walton) Airport is now officially open for business – well, freight business that is. The new 24-hour cargo precinct is up and running, with round-the-clock takeoffs and landings by major freight operators including Qantas Freight, Menzies Aviation, Texel Air, dnata Cargo, and more. The first flight, a Qantas Freight A321, flight QF7340, took off at 1:01am on 28 July, over 2 hours delayed, bound for Brisbane with a belly full of Australia Post parcels and cargo.

​Just two weeks prior, the first ever freight plane, also a Qantas Freight A321 operation, flight QF7301, landed at WSI to support testing ahead of the airport’s official opening. This flight landed at 2:00pm on Monday 13 July, after a short hop from Sydney Kingsford Smith Airport in Mascot. Several other trial flights were conducted to ensure safe operations, including Airbus A330s, Boeing 737s, and BAE 146s, with the freight apron capable of holding up to 16 narrow-body or eight wide-body aircraft at once.

​The new freight precinct will accommodate over 1.8 million tonnes of cargo each and every year, drastically expanding Sydney’s freight capacity and reducing parcel delivery times – with the help of the airport’s lack of curfew, unlike its Mascot counterpart. Meanwhile, passenger operations are slated to begin in October this year. You can read more about the opening of WSI on page 44 in this issue.

Far from home: USCG lands in Brisbane

​A US Coast Guard Lockheed HC-130J, Rescue 2002, landed in Brisbane Airport in Queensland on 28 July, with several hawk-eyed aviators at the ready to capture the moment. Its bright orange tail and four propeller engines are certainly not spotted in these parts very often! While there is minimal information about why the plane was sent to Australian soil, some suggest this was a medevac flight, bound for Honiara, Solomon Islands.

The landing took place just days after the Solomon Islands agreed to expand its ‘shiprider agreement’ – a legal framework to allow Solomon Islands law enforcement officers to operate on US Coast Guard vessels for maritime law enforcement, including policing of illegal fishing. The long-range HC-130J variant has a range of around 4,900 nmi or over 10 hours of flight time. The plane itself, Rescue 02, is one of a fleet of four based at Coast Guard Air Station Barbers Point in Hawaii.