Qantas passengers are set to benefit from a world first collaboration between the airline and one of Australia’s leading academic institutions to reshape the travel experience.
The University of Sydney’s Charles Perkins Centre will work with Qantas to help develop the airline’s new approach to long haul travel ahead of the first Boeing 787 Dreamliner flights this year.
The centre brings together researchers across a variety of fields from nutrition to physical activity, sleep and complex systems modelling.
Research projects include strategies to counteract jetlag, on board exercise and movement, menu design and service timing, pre- and post-flight preparation, transit lounge wellness concepts and cabin environment including lighting and temperature.
Qantas Group CEO Alan Joyce said the partnership has the potential to transform the journey for passengers, particularly on the long haul routes that the Dreamliner is scheduled to operate.
Professor Steve Simpson, academic director of the Charles Perkins Centre, said the partnership is hugely exciting as it’s the first time there has been an integrated multidisciplinary collaboration between an airline and a university around in-flight health and wellbeing beyond medical emergency.
“There is the potential for extraordinary health, science and engineering discoveries and innovations to come out of this research partnership, which will also provide the evidence-base needed for Qantas to implement strategies to further improve how people feel after a long haul flight.”
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