The almost century-old Qantas followed the speculation of recent weeks and selected the Airbus A350-1000 for its new flights, which should debut in 2022, nonstop between Sydney, London and New York.
Airbus offered a version of the A350-1000, which, according to the company, would have a range of 16110 km with a typical transport load of 375 engers.
The study of this version with expanded MTOW is being conducted together with Qantas, which is interested in having this version available as early as 2020.
The 8700nm range quoted by Airbus is approximately the great distance between New York and Sydney, but smaller than the 9200nm of the London-Sydney flight. The manufacturer says it will be able to deliver as promised.
Airbus has not indicated the extent of any restrictions or modifications that would be required for the A350-1000 to meet Project Sunrise criteria, and has not yet confirmed the MTOW of the candidate variant, but it is estimated to be a new version weighing 319 tonnes Maximum Takeoff. Qantas, on the other hand, claims that negotiations point to an extra tank to increase fuel transport capacity.
One caveat remains. The decision on whether Project Sunrise will go ahead has yet to be made. According to Qantas, this will be done in March 2020. The substance of today's announcement is that if Qantas decides to go ahead with Project Sunrise, they will be using A350-1000 aircraft.
The order for 12 planes will only be placed if the company decides to proceed with Project Sunrise.
In this way, Qantas abandons its plan to use the 777X as a platform for long-haul flights, and even more affects Boeing, which loses a customer for the 777X program.
