Why a 24 hour flight is really really short

It was a 30 hour journey, door to door, from Canberra to London.

Sounds a lot - but it wouldn't to the old sailors and emigrating families for whom the journey was one of months and months.

Of course there were easy and hard ways then as there are now. A port-out starboard-home (i.e. posh) cabin can't have that been that bad, but the poorest must have really suffered with just a few feet of space in the darkest depths of the ship.

And the differences remain today between economy and first class. I couldn't help but wonder about what the journey must feel like in an Airbus 380 (pictured above during transit at Sydney).

If you want to bring back the romance of air travel, then this seems the answer - private cabin for upper class passengers with champagne and a double bed!