June routes roundup: Qantas to launch its first Project Sunrise route in 2027

Qantas confirmed the launch of its first Project Sunrise route, a milestone for the airline and commercial aviation.

The Australian airline will begin operating nonstop flights between Sydney and London Heathrow as of October 2027 using Airbus A350-1000ULR aircraft. These ultra-long-haul services will operate alongside Qantas’s current routes in the Australia–United Kingdom market, which are Perth–London and Sydney–Singapore–London, with Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners and Airbus A380s, respectively. As announced by Qantas, Project Sunrise’s Sydney–London flights will go on sale effective February 2027.

The Airbus A350-1000ULR features an additional 20,000-liter fuel tank that enables the aircraft to fly more than 16,000 kilometers—about 22 hours—nonstop. Qantas will add up to 12 of these aircraft to its fleet, all configured to carry 238 passengers in four seating classes.

Qantas has been flying between Sydney and London for nearly 80 years, having launched service between the two cities in 1947. The original route, known as the Kangaroo Route, took four days and had seven stops, being Sydney – Darwin – Singapore – Kolkata – Karachi – Cairo – Casten Benito – Rome – London.

At the same time as the announcement of Project Sunrise’s first route, Qantas unveiled the first Airbus A350-1000ULR at Airbus’ manufacturing facility in Toulouse. A second A350-1000ULR to be operated by the Australian airline made its maiden flight earlier this month and is currently undergoing an eight-week testing and certification program.

The Canadian airline will launch three new international routes from Canada using Embraer E195-E2 aircraft configured for 132 passengers. One route will be from Hamilton, another from Ottawa, and the other from Toronto Pearson.

Starting December 17th, United Airlines will add a new destination in South America: Cartagena.

The airline will operate four weekly flights on the Houston–Cartagena and Washington–Cartagena routes using Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft. Rafael Núñez International Airport will be United’s third destination in Colombia, following Bogotá and Medellín.

Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday

Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday

According to its website, Austrian Airlines will offer three flights between Vienna and Berlin using Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner aircraft, configured for 294 passengers. At the time of publication, all of these services will take place in October, with the following schedule:

Austrian Airlines will be one of the few European airlines to operate wide-body aircraft in Berlin.

At 15:11 local time on June 29th, the first flight of Cyprus Airways took off from Larnaca bound for Santorini Thira, where it arrived at 16:27 local time. The inaugural flight was operated by the Airbus A220-300 with registration number 5B-DEB, which the airline acquired brand-new from the factory in January 2023.

The Cypriot airline will be the only one operating flights to the Greek island from Larnaca, offering one flight on Mondays and another on Fridays (CY470/CY471).

As per our database, the last Cyprus Airways flight between Larnaca and Santorini was on September 8th, 2024, marking the return of this route after nearly two years.

As of December 19th, the French low-cost carrier will add two new destinations to its network: the Maldives and Sri Lanka.

French bee will launch the triangular route Paris Orly–Male–Colombo–Paris Orly, which will run twice-weekly using Airbus A350-900 aircraft configured to carry 411 passengers. Both countries will join the United States, French Polynesia, and Réunion as the airline’s current markets to/from the French capital.

No traffic rights on the Male – Colombo segment.

We recently published an article on our blog about French Bee, covering its routes, service, current fleet, and history. For more information, you can click here.

From November 1st to 30th, the Spanish airline will operate a new route between Spain and Italy using 180-seat Airbus A320-200 aircraft.

In accordance with its website, Iberia will fly the Madrid–Salerno route once daily, exclusively during the month of November, being the sole operator on this service.

Bologna, Catania, Florence, Milan, Naples, Olbia, Rome, Turin, and Venice are Iberia’s current destinations in Italy.

On July 1st at 11:30 local time, Lufthansa City’s first flight to Basel Mulhouse-Freiburg EuroAirport will depart from Munich. The Lufthansa Group airline will operate five weekly frequencies on this route with Airbus A319 and Airbus A320 aircraft, joining the flights operated by Lufthansa and Air Dolomiti on this same service.

Bulgaria, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Jersey, Malta, the Netherlands, Romania, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom are the markets served by Lufthansa City from Munich.

The Spanish low-cost carrier owned by the IAG Group will expand its international schedule between Bilbao and Italy with the addition of three new routes in Q4 2026. All of them will be performed by Airbus A320 aircraft with a 186-seat, single-class configuration:

Vueling currently offers two routes to Italy from Bilbao: Milan and Rome.

The Chinese airline will begin flying between Xiamen and London Heathrow starting September 6th. As per its website, Xiamen Airlines will offer three weekly flights using Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner aircraft seating 287 passengers in two classes.

London will be Xiamen Air’s first destination in the United Kingdom.

Beginning in mid-July, the airline will launch two new routes between India and the United Arab Emirates, which it will serve with a mix of Airbus A320neo and Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft.

The Indian low-cost carrier will introduce the Airbus A321XLR in Indonesia starting October 25th on the Delhi–Denpasar route, to be provided with a daily frequency.

In addition to the Delhi–Denpasar route, IndiGo will begin flying between Mumbai and the Indonesian city using Airbus A321XLR effective January 1st, also seven times a week.

Beginning on August 8th, the Vietnamese airline will launch the Phu Quoc–Bangkok Suvarnabhumi route, which it will operate using Airbus A320neo aircraft with a capacity of 174 passengers.

The Thai capital will be Sun PhuQuoc’s first destination in Thailand.

The Omani carrier will resume flights between Muscat and Abu Dhabi starting July 9th, running daily on Boeing 737 aircraft.

Currently, Etihad Airways is the only carrier on this route, operating one daily flight on Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner aircraft. As of July 1st, it will introduce a second daily flight between the two capitals, to be conducted on Airbus A320s and Airbus A321s.

Qatar continues to add new intercontinental routes from its mega hub in Doha, including one resumption and two new additions, all of them in the Americas.

Effective July 22nd, the carrier will launch flights to Colombia and Venezuela with the Doha–Bogotá–Caracas–Doha triangular route. Eight days later, precisely on August 1st, it will restart service to Philadelphia, marking its 12th destination in the United States.

On June 25th at 09:37 local time, Air Europa’s inaugural flight from Madrid landed in Johannesburg, marking a milestone: the Spanish airline’s first scheduled route to South Africa.

Air Europa will provide three weekly flights between Madrid and Johannesburg using 298-seat Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner aircraft, thus becoming the only carrier on the Spain–South Africa market.

Spain and South Africa resumed nonstop flights after seven years.

The South African airline will initiate flights between Cape Town and Mauritius effective October 2nd, which it will operate using its state-of-the-art 136-seat Embraer E195-E2 aircraft.

Airlink will be the only airline operating on this route.

Windhoek, Condor’s new destination.

The German carrier will begin flying to Namibia, its seventh market in Africa. Flights will connect Frankfurt with Windhoek using 310-seat Airbus A330neo aircraft, starting June 24th, 2027.

Discover operates this route daily with Airbus A330-300s, making it the only carrier operating between both cities at present.

*The Lufthansa Technik Boeing 737 MAX 8, registration D-AACE, was initially going to be added by GOL Linhas Aéreas (PS-GRR), but it was not taken up. It will soon join Air Algérie under the registry 7T-VLR.

Cover photo shared by Qantas Newsroom

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