Establishing direct routes to take passengers from Melbourne and Sydney to faraway cities, particularly in North America and Europe, without stopovers has become a major focus of the national carrier under a new plan called "Project Sunrise".

Qantas officials on Sunday said aviation giants Boeing and Airbus were vying for the project and working on design modifications that would make 20-hour passenger flights commercially viable.

"The actual head of Airbus said, 'It's a bit like the space race to me, it's a bit like getting to the moon'," said Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce, on a visit to Boeing's assembly plant in Seattle on Sunday.

"We are getting very close ... to getting the technology that will allow us to operate routes that we [previously] could only have imagined."

This week, Qantas picks up the first of eight new Dreamliner 787-9 planes, which will be used for the first-ever non-stop, long-haul service between Australia and Europe.

The route will run between Perth and London's Heathrow airport without any stopovers.

"For the first time in history, Australia and Europe will be connected by a great service," Mr Joyce said.

"[Next] we want to do that on the east coast. We want Melbourne and we want Sydney and we want Brisbane. We also want to fly direct into New York, we'd love to be able to fly into Brazil ... and we'd love to be able to fly direct into Cape Town."

Mr Joyce on Sunday said Qantas was in discussions with the rival plane makers, with the US-based Boeing working on possible modifications to its soon-to-be-launched 777X airplane and France's Airbus altering the design of its A350 to make non-stop passenger flights of up to 20 hours viable.

"They are both up for the challenge," he said.

Although existing airplanes, such as the ultra-long-range A350, had the capability to fly directly from the eastern seaboard to places like London, Mr Joyce said they were not presently viable due to a number of factors including passenger and freight loads.

Qantas has signalled it wants to have the ultra-long-haul direct flights from Melbourne and Sydney running by 2022.

Boeing executives on Sunday said the project was an exciting challenge but would not be easy.

"We are working closely with Qantas," said Jim Freitas, Boeing's managing director of product marketing, "and our engineers are understanding the requirements ... what Qantas needs to do, how many passengers, then coming back to make sure we have the capability."

Mr Freitas said the task would be challenging, "but we are really looking forward to it."

Qantas' eight new Boeing Dreamliners, the first of which arrives in Australia on Friday, will be the first all-new aircraft type in the national carrier's flight since the A380 in 2008.

The Dreamliner is considered advantageous because it is made of lightweight carbon fibre, allowing it to fly longer and use far less fuel.

The new 17-hour Perth-to-London Qantas route, the first regular, non-stop service between Australia and Europe, begins in March next year.

Qantas International chief executive Gareth Evans called the new route a "game-changer" for Australians.

"Given the tyranny of distance and our geographical position at the bottom of the world, this new generation of technical capability really allows us to start to overcome the disadvantages of our geography," he said.

The author travelled to Seattle as a guest of Qantas.