My husband and 3 work colleagues need to fly to Beijing from Sydney in next few weeks.

My husband and 3 work colleagues need to fly to Beijing from Sydney in next few weeks. Any recommendations on which airline to use? They would prefer to fly direct if possible. Thanks

Travelling between Beijing and Sydney multiple times yearly I can sure say that regardles of class of travel go with Cathay Pacific (Via Hong Kong). Can't beat their hard product and also soft product, Air China do fly direct but personally I would rather travel CX via HK and add on an extra 4-5 hours than fly Air China direct, Also Air China's direct service to PEK is an overnight flight from SYD with an ungodly arrival time of 5AM. 

I would argue that the 5:30am arrival in PEK is actually quite a good one, particularly if they are flying for work. It's very early, sure, but the flight is nearly twelve hours long and leaves SYD at the pleasant hour of 8:40pm.

You can also fly SYD-SIN-PEK on SQ if the pricing is competitive. If the OP's husband and colleagues need a morning arrival and are willing to run a tight connection, it's possible to get the 7:10pm SQ flight to SIN, connecting to the 1:10am redeye to PEK.

On the way back, it's possible to connect the PEK-SIN redeye to the early morning flight back to SYD, but if they're coming back at the end of a work trip to a weekend, it might be worthwhile to book a long layover and swing by Singapore proper for some fresh air (fresher than PEK, at least).