Tens of thousands of people have watched online as Qantas’s ultra-long-haul Project Sunrise Airbus touched down in Melbourne after a 19-hour direct flight from France.

Qantas has hailed the flight test as a major milestone for the Airbus A350-1000ULR, which will eventually be used for its world-first non-stop services between Sydney and London scheduled to begin in October 2027.

The plan landed in Melbourne just after 10.45am on Friday after flying around 17,000 kilometres from Airbus’s manufacturing facility in Toulouse, with four Airbus flight test pilots and five flight test engineers on board.

Qantas said ahead of the flight taking off that the crew would be “putting the aircraft’s systems through their paces, including the additional 20,000-litre fuel tank that allows it to fly commercially non-stop for up to 22 hours”.

The flight test has been eagerly followed by plane enthusiasts, with more than 67,000 people reportedly tracking it on flightradar24.com.

“Our Project Sunrise Airbus A350-1000ULR has touched down in Australia for the first time,” Qantas said in a social media post showing the landing.

“This journey is part of its two-month flight testing campaign, with the aircraft flying directly from Toulouse to Melbourne in 19 hours and 12 minutes.”

The Airbus flew 17,000 kilometres from Toulouse to Melbourne. Image: flightradar24.com

The return flight to Toulouse will leave Melbourne on Monday, when two Qantas pilots will join the flight test crew.

The A350-1000ULR has been specifically manufactured for Project Sunrise, with Qantas ordering 12 aircraft in total, each with 238 seats across four cabins – first class, business, premium economy and economy.

The airline announced last month that London would be the first destination for the world’s longest non-stop commercial flight, with the first Project Sunrise Sydney to London services going on sale in February 2027.

“The tyranny of distance has finally been conquered,” CEO Vanessa Hudson said at the time as she unveiled one of the modified Airbus planes.

“This is a moment Qantas has been working towards since the day we were founded. Australia’s distance from the rest of the world should never stand in the way.”

Half of the 12 new jets will serve the ultra-long-haul London and New York markets, while the rest may replace Boeing 787s on other long routes such as Perth-London or Auckland-New York.

For those wondering about the comfort of such a long journey, Hudson has promised that the Project Sunrise flights will have “science-backed design to minimise jetlag and maximise wellbeing”.