SYDNEY, June 18, 2026, 06:09 (AEST)
- Qantas shares last closed at A$9.98 on June 17, up 0.2%, after trading higher over the past week. Intelligent Investor
- The airline named London as the first Project Sunrise destination, with Sydney-London non-stop flights due to start in October 2027. News
- Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.54% to 8,966.30 on Wednesday, giving the stock a firmer market backdrop before Thursday trade. Investing
Qantas Airways heads into Thursday’s session with investors weighing a clearer launch timetable for its long-delayed ultra-long-haul bet, Project Sunrise, after the stock closed slightly higher in the prior session. The ASX cash market had not yet reopened at the dateline; normal share trading in Sydney starts just before 10 a.m. and runs to 4 p.m. Australian Securities Exchange
The issue for the market is not just a new route. It is whether Qantas can turn Australia’s distance from Europe into a higher-margin product, at a time when fuel, airspace disruption and aircraft delivery schedules still matter more than glossy cabin renderings.
Qantas said the first non-stop Sydney-London services would begin in October 2027, with seats going on sale in February 2027. The airline said the Airbus A350-1000ULR aircraft will carry 238 passengers, has an added 20,000-litre fuel tank, and can fly more than 16,000 kilometres for up to 22 hours without stopping. Qantas Newsroom
Chief Executive Vanessa Hudson framed the launch as the removal of the final stop on the Kangaroo Route. Qantas has flown Sydney-London since 1947, when the trip took four days and seven stops, including Darwin, Singapore, Calcutta, Karachi, Cairo, Castel Benito and Rome.
Aviation analyst John Strickland told Reuters Qantas was selling “time,” a blunt way of saying the economics depend on travellers paying more to avoid a layover. Qantas hopes to replicate the roughly 20% premium it has achieved on Perth-London flights, and has estimated Project Sunrise could add more than A$400 million a year to earnings. Reuters
The competitive read-through is aimed less at domestic rival Virgin Australia than at long-haul one-stop carriers. Emirates and other Gulf airlines built major Australia-Europe traffic flows through their hubs, and Reuters reported they are expected to defend that market share.
There was no fresh Qantas ASX announcement in the June 12-18 search window, according to the ASX company announcements page, so Thursday’s early trading may show how much investors had already priced in the Toulouse route announcement and Wednesday’s broader market lift. Australian Securities Exchange
The risk is that the long-haul prize stays hostage to costs. In an April market update, Qantas said jet fuel prices had more than doubled from earlier guidance, that it was hedged on about 90% of second-half crude exposure but exposed to jet refining margins, and that it had cut some domestic capacity while raising fares and changing international flying. Hedging means using contracts to reduce the impact of price swings, but it does not remove the cost risk. Qantas Newsroom
For the shares, the near-term question is narrower: whether a clearer Project Sunrise timetable can keep attention on premium international growth, or whether investors return to the older worries — fuel, aircraft certification, airspace disruption and the price passengers will really pay for 20-plus hours in the air.
