495 separate revenue flights without a single delay for mechanical reasons. 1971 Qantas introduces the jumbo jet - the Boeing 747. 1974 Qantas establishes a world record by evacuating 673 passengers on one of its flights from Darwin after the city was devastated by Cyclone Tracy. 1979 Qantas phases out its last 707 to become the world's only all-747 airline and introduces the world's first Business Class. 1985 Qantas introduces Boeing 767s. 1985 James Strong joins TAA and sets about transforming and revitalising TAA at a time when the Government was moving towards a greater degree of deregulation and competition. 1986 Trans-Australia Airlines (TAA) is renamed Australian Airlines. 1988 Australian Airlines becomes an incorporated public company. 1989 Australian Airlines runs into major trouble when its pilots go on strike and later that year resign en masse. Australian Airlines goes on to recruit a new pilot work force working on new contracts. At this time the Government advises that it is considering a merger of Australian Airlines and Qantas. 1989 Qantas establishes a world distance record for commercial jets when it flies its first Boeing 747-400 non stop 18,001km from London to Sydney in 20 hours nine minutes and five seconds. 1990 John Schaap, another former Qantas executive, is appointed Australian Airlines General Manager just ten months before the Government is to deregulate the Australian domestic aviation industry. 1992 On June 2, Prime Minister Paul Keating announces at a press conference what he describes as 'a little bit of history'. The