Certificate: The longest flight made by a commercial airliner

The Airbus A350-1000ULR (Ultra-Long Range) has officially broken the Guinness World Record for longest flight carried out by a commercial aircraft. Airbus Foto Photos

The record was based on aircraft data independently validated by the International Aeronautical Federation and flightradar24.

The flight operated by Airbus, with call sign AIB35LR, took off from Melbourne, Australia, at 17:27 local time (06:27 UTC) of Monday 27 July and landed in Toulouse, France, at 09:51 local time (07:51 UTC) Tuesday's 28 of July. The flight covered a distance of 12.503 nautical miles (equivalent to 23.155 kilometres), with a duration of 24 hours and 24 minutes.

The world's new longest commercial airliner flight

The mission was carried out as part of the A350-1000ULR flight test campaign, that is being developed for Qantas Airways within the framework of Sunrise Project. This included the requirement that Airbus operate a sector with a duration of 23 hours (from the recoil when taking off to the placement of the chocks when landing) to simulate the longest possible commercial operations with the aircraft.

After taking off from Melbourne, The plane flew over Sydney before heading northeast toward the Pacific. The Angels, crossing the international date line. It then flew over the North American continent and the Atlantic before heading south towards the United Kingdom., going by London and reaching Toulouse. During the journey, the crew witnessed two sunsets and two sunrises as the plane crossed three continents and two oceans.

A total of 13 people. Among them were the crew, composed of three flight test pilots from Airbus, of pilots Qantas and five flight test engineers from Airbus. Also on board were two Airbus design engineers and a representative of the International Aeronautical Federation..

«This achievement reflects the pioneering and innovative spirit that is part of our DNA at Airbus. In response to the challenge posed by Qantas, our teams collaborated to extend the reach of the A350-1000 in an efficient and economically viable way, in order to carry out the longest commercial flights in history », declared Lars Wagner, CEO of Airbus Commercial Aircraft. «When flying 12.503 non-stop nautical miles, we have fully demonstrated the aircraft's ability to accomplish its mission. And the world record was the icing on the cake!!».

“Congratulations to all the Airbus teams who have made this project possible.. Thank you to Qantas for an exceptional collaboration that has allowed us to push the limits together, to Rolls-Royce for their full support and to all our partners who have contributed to this exciting moment in aviation history. Today we can affirm that the A350 is, definitely, the undisputed leader in long-range flights!”, Lars added..

The A350-1000ULR will allow Qantas Airways operate non-stop flights between sydney, London and New York for the first time in its history, a distance of almost 10 000 nautical miles, with flight times of up to 22 hours. This is mainly possible thanks to the integration into the aircraft structure of an additional rear center tank. (RCT), which further improves the aircraft's performance and increases its range by 1 000 nautical miles.

The A350-1000ULR It is the fourth passenger variant of the successful family A350, joining the A350-900, the A350-900ULR and the A350-1000. On the whole, These aircraft have set new standards in long-haul air travel., with a substantial reduction in fuel consumption and carbon emissions, and new levels of comfort. Coming soon, passenger range will be expanded with new cargo plane A350F, which made its first flight on 29 September for a nine-month testing program.

At the end of October 2026, the family A350 had received 1.628 requests for 70 customers, more than 740 aircraft already in service with 42 operators, mainly on long-haul routes around the world.

Qantas has commissioned 12 A350-1000ULR within the framework of Project Sunrise. Delivery of the first aircraft is scheduled for April next year, and its entry into service on the Sydney-London route will take place at the end of this year. What's more, The airline also has managers 12 A350-1000 standard for future operation on its long-haul flight network.

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