Qantas wants its smartphone app to help you beat jetlag

Qantas' smartphone app could soon become smart enough to help travellers overcome jetlag, based on findings from the airline's Project Sunrise research flights.

It's potentially the next stage in the evolution of iPhone and Android airline apps, from being basic tools for booking and managing a flight to becoming more integrated into a passenger's overall travel experience.

According to Qantas' own studies, "only one in 400 people are using an app to try and help you get your circadian rhythms right," says Qantas Group CEO Alan Joyce. "So what we're looking at is whether we can integrate this into the Qantas app."

Adjusting your sleep schedule is part of taming jetlag.

"If you think about what you can program into the Qantas app... you know when people are departing, you know what the regime is up to there, what type of flying they're doing," Joyce told Executive Traveller on the sidelines of the official opening of the Qantas Singapore First Lounge.

Based on the passenger's flights, the app would provide advice on what to eat (and what to avoid) at various stages of the journey, as well as when to sleep and the best time to be exposed to and avoid light, so as to quickly adjust to their destination's time zone.

Joyce said the app would map out a recommended schedule "in the buildup to the flight, on the flight and post-flight."

"It's a lot easier than downloading an app from the app store, and gives people an added advantage that they don't get today with other airlines."

United Airlines recently partnered with the popular Timeshifter app.

While Qantas could be the first airline to roll a jetlag manager into its app, United Airlines has already forged a partnership with the Timeshifter app which lets all members of its MileagePlus rewards program receive access to a free Timeshifter jetlag plan for a single flight, while top-tier Premier 1K members receive a complimentary Timeshifter subscription with unlimited plans.

This upgrade to the Qantas app would be one spin-off from the Project Sunrise 'research flights' held across October-December 2019, which saw a Boeing 787-9 trek non-stop from New York and London to Sydney.

Review: Here's what it was like on Qantas' non-stop New York-Sydney flight

Having already settled on a long-legged Airbus A350 for the globe-striding Project Sunrise fleet, Qantas is aiming to obtain regulatory approval by Australia's Civil Aviation Safety Authority and complete negotiations with its pilots – which the airline has described as "closing the last remaining gap in the Project Sunrise business case" – ahead of what Joyce calls "a final go/no go decision" to be made in March 2020.

If it's a green light, the marathon flights would begin in 2023. 

As previously reported by Executive Traveller, the Project Sunrise fleet will carry around 300 passengers in all-new first class suites and business class seats, along with premium economy and economy, the latter of which will also have extra leg-room compared to today's economy seats.

London, Paris and Frankfurt have been singled out as the European destinations for Project Sunrise, alongside New York and Rio de Janeiro in the Americas.

However, Qantas will keep its non-stop Boeing 787-9 service between Perth and London even if Project Sunrise adds Sydney-London and Melbourne-London flights.

David Flynn

David Flynn is the Editor-in-Chief of Executive Traveller and a bit of a travel tragic with a weakness for good coffee, shopping and lychee martinis.