Qantas went shopping on Monday, taking a joyride in the skies above Sydney in a variation of the aircraft it could soon be flying non-stop from Australia's east coast to New York and London.

Airbus is pitting its A350-900 up against Boeing's 777-8X to be chosen by Qantas for its "Project Sunrise" ambition to fly across the globe to Europe and America's east coast without stopping from about 2022.

The Airbus A350-1000 at Sydney Airport on Monday. Credit:Kate Geraghty

In Sydney on Monday to show off the -1000 variant of the A350 to executives from both Qantas and Virgin Australia, Airbus' head of A350 marketing Marisa Lucas-Ugena said the European aerospace giant was "having very interesting conversations with Qantas" about the project.

"We are evaluating what they want and they are evaluating what they [the A350] can do," she said.