24‑hour Sydney–London flights

British Airways is planning Sydney-to-London service with a scheduled journey that can stretch to 24 hours 25 minutes, including its stopover. (simpleflying.com) The airline’s current plan covers flights between May 2026 and February 2027, with daily Boeing 787-9 service in the northern summer. Simple Flying, citing Cirium Diio schedule data, said the route uses British Airways’ 216-seat 787-9 most of the time, with an occasional 215-seat variant. (simpleflying.com) This is not a nonstop flight. The 24-hour figure is a block time, which airlines use for gate-to-gate scheduling and which includes taxi time, flight time, the stop en route, and some buffer for short delays. (simpleflying.com) That distinction matters because “ultra-long-haul” usually describes flights scheduled for more than 16 hours in the air, and the Sydney-London British Airways itinerary reaches 24 hours only by combining two flight segments and the ground stop. (flightradar24.com) British Airways already lists Australia in its route network, and its new-routes page says Melbourne will join the map from January 2027. That points to a broader rebuild of the airline’s Australia flying after years with a much smaller presence there. (britishairways.com, britishairways.com) Simple Flying said British Airways had cut 21 routes since January 2025, even as it prepared 12 launches from London in 2026 and 2027. In that mix, Australia stands out because British Airways is adding back long, aircraft-intensive flying at the far edge of its network. (simpleflying.com) The Sydney route is also a bridge to a different race that has not started yet: true nonstop London-Sydney flights. Qantas still says its Project Sunrise nonstop service from Sydney to London is planned for 2027, using specially configured Airbus A350-1000 aircraft. (independent.co.uk) British Airways’ own seat-map page says layouts can vary by aircraft, but third-party seat-map listings for the carrier’s 787-9 show the 216-seat version in a four-cabin setup. That is a relatively low seat count for a long-haul jet, which helps on missions where range and payload are in tension. (britishairways.com, seatmaps.com) For travelers, the headline is less “one day in the air” than “one day gate to gate.” For British Airways, the headline is that Sydney is back at the outer limit of what its published schedule is willing to sell. (simpleflying.com)