It’s the 22-hour flight that is shaping up as one of Vanessa Hudson’s first big tests. Can the relatively new Qantas chief executive pull off her predecessor’s dream of non-stop travel between Sydney and Melbourne and London?

Slowly, the key elements are falling into place. But it’s not easy putting together the monster flight – one that clocks in at more than three hours longer than the current record-holder, Singapore Airline’s flight from the city-state to New York.