The 20-hour flight is coming. And it may have a gym and bunks

“We’re now comfortable that we think we have vehicles that could do it,” Joyce said in an interview in Qantas’s central Sydney offices.

Project Sunrise, as Qantas calls it, involves configuring an aircraft so that it can fly about 300 passengers and their luggage farther than any regular service to date, with fuel in hand for unexpected headwinds and emergencies. If the first routes prove viable in 2022, direct connections from major cities in the Americas, Europe and Africa to Australia could follow.

Qantas and the manufacturers are dreaming up cabin interiors geared toward surviving such marathon flights. There’s scope to incorporate bunks, child-care facilities and even somewhere to work out, Joyce said.