Qantas

Qantas Airways Limited (/ˈkwɒntəs/ KWON-təs) is the flag carrier of Australia. It is the largest airline by fleet size, international flights, and international destinations in Australia and Oceania. Qantas is the world's third-oldest airline by foundation date and the oldest airline in the English-speaking world — being founded in November 1920. Qantas is a founding member of the Oneworld airline alliance.
Qantas is an acronym of the airline's original name, Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services, as it originally served Queensland and the Northern Territory. It is popularly nicknamed "The Flying Kangaroo". It is considered the only airline in the world to fly to all seven continents, with it being the only airline operating regular sightseeing flights to Antarctica, along with flights to Africa, Europe, Asia, North America and South America.
Qantas is based in the Sydney suburb of Mascot, adjacent to its main hub at Sydney Airport. As of March 2023, Qantas Group had a 60.8% share of the Australian domestic market. Various subsidiary airlines operate to regional centres and on some trunk routes within Australia, as well as some short haul international flights under the QantasLink banner. Qantas owns Jetstar, a low-cost airline that operates both international services from Australia and domestic services within Australia and New Zealand. It holds stakes in a number of other Jetstar-branded airlines in Asia, as well as Fiji Airways.
== History ==
link=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Qantas_First_Office_Longreach_Queensland_1921slnsw_a1178007u.jpg|thumb|The original QANTAS office in Longreach, Queensland, 1921
link=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Avro_Dyack_used_by_QANTAS_ca._1921.jpg|thumb|QANTAS Avro 504K Dyak, 1921
link=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Flying_boats_at_Rose_Bay.jpg|thumb|Qantas Empire Airways Short Empire flying boats at Rose Bay in Sydney Harbour, 1939
Qantas was founded in Winton, Queensland on 16 November 1920 by Hudson Fysh, Paul McGinness and Fergus McMaster as Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services Limited. The airline's first aircraft was an Avro 504K. It moved its headquarters to Longreach, Queensland in 1921 and Brisbane, Queensland in 1930.
=== QEA era ===
In 1934, QANTAS and Britain's Imperial Airways, a forerunner of British Airways, formed a new company, Qantas Empire Airways Limited (QEA). In December 1934, the new airline began operations, flying between Brisbane and Darwin. QEA flew internationally from May 1935, when the service from Darwin was extended to Singapore. Imperial Airways operated the rest of the service through to London. When World War II began, enemy action and accidents destroyed half of the fleet of ten. Most of the fleet was taken over by the Australian government for war service.
In 1943, flying boat services resumed, with flights between the Swan River at Crawley in Perth, Western Australia and Koggala Lake in Ceylon, now Sri Lanka. This linked up with the British Overseas Airways Corporation, BOAC, the successor airline to Imperial Airways, service to London. Qantas' kangaroo logo was first used on the "Kangaroo Route", begun in 1944, from Sydney to Karachi, where BOAC crews took over for the rest of the journey to the UK.
In 1947, QEA was nationalised by the Australian government led by Labor Prime Minister Ben Chifley. QANTAS Limited was then wound up. After nationalisation, Qantas' remaining domestic network, in Queensland, was transferred to the nationally owned Trans-Australia Airlines, leaving Qantas with a purely international network. Shortly after nationalisation, QEA began its first services outside the British Empire, to Tokyo. Services to Hong Kong began around the same time. In 1957, a head office, Qantas House, opened in Sydney.
=== Jet age ===
link=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Boeing_707_-_Qantas_(17342297349).jpg|thumb|Qantas Boeing 707, Heathrow airport, London, 1969
In June 1959, Qantas entered the jet age when the first Boeing 707–138 was delivered. On 14 September 1992, Qantas merged with nationally owned domestic airline, Australian Airlines, renamed from Trans-Australia Airlines in 1986. Australian Airlines's aircraft started to be rebranded as Qantas aircraft in 1993. Qantas was gradually privatised between 1993 and 1997. Under legislation passed to allow the privatisation, Qantas must be at least 51% owned by Australian shareholders.
=== Oneworld and Jetstar ===
In 1998, Qantas co-founded the Oneworld alliance with American Airlines, British Airways, Canadian Airlines, and Cathay Pacific. with other airlines joining subsequently.
With the entry of new discount airline Virgin Blue, now Virgin Australia, into the domestic market in 2000, Qantas' market share fell. Qantas created the budget Jetstar in 2001 to compete. The main domestic competitor to Qantas, Ansett Australia, collapsed in September 2001.
Qantas briefly revived the Australian Airlines name as a short-lived international budget airline between 2002 and 2006. This subsidiary was shut down in favour of expanding Jetstar internationally, including to New Zealand. In 2004, the Qantas group expanded into the Asian budget airline market with Jetstar Asia, in which Qantas owns a minority stake. In 2007, a similar model was used for an investment into Jetstar Pacific, headquartered in Vietnam, and Jetstar Japan, launched in 2012.
In December 2006, Qantas was the subject of a failed bid from a consortium calling itself Airline Partners Australia. In 2008, merger talks with British Airways did not proceed to an agreement. In 2011, industrial relations dispute between Qantas and the Transport Workers Union of Australia resulted in the grounding of all Qantas aircraft and a lock-out of the airline's staff for two days.
On 25 March 2018, a Qantas Boeing 787 flew non-stop between Australia and Europe, connecting the two continents by air for the first time, with the arrival in London of Flight 9 (QF9). QF9 was a 17-hour, 14,498 km (9,009-mile) journey from Perth Airport in Western Australia to London Heathrow.
On 20 October 2019, Qantas Airways completed the longest commercial flight to date, between New York City and Sydney using a Boeing 787–9 Dreamliner in 19 hours and 20 minutes.
=== COVID 19 ===
link=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Qantas_Campus_Mascot,_New_South_Wales,_2022.jpg|thumb|Qantas Campus, Mascot, New South Wales (2022)
On 19 March 2020, Qantas suspended about 60% of domestic flights, put two thirds of its employees on leave, suspended all international flights and grounded more than 150 of its aircraft from the end of March until at least 31 May 2020, following expanded COVID-19 pandemic government travel restrictions. To survive the pandemic, Qantas axed 6,000 jobs and announced a plan to raise A$1.9 billion in new capital. Qantas offloaded its 30% stake in Jetstar Pacific to Vietnam Airlines, retiring the Jetstar brand in Vietnam.
In July 2020, Qantas retired its last Boeing 747-438ER, after almost 49 years of continuous operation of the type—the first 747-238B was introduced in August 1971. All twelve Airbus A380s were placed in storage, ten at Mojave Air & Space Port and two at Los Angeles International Airport, for a minimum of three years. The pilots of the last Boeing 747 flight to Mojave Desert via Los Angeles traced the shape of the iconic Qantas logo in the flight path before the jet continued on its journey.
In November 2020, Qantas issued a public statement expressing their intention to require passengers traveling overseas to provide proof of COVID-19 inoculation. As per the statement made by Alan Joyce, the airline's CEO, the presence of a COVID-19 vaccine would be considered indispensable for the purpose of travel. Joyce expressed their intention to potentially modify the terms and conditions, to specify that anyone traveling internationally must have a vaccination before embarking. Qantas also announced a cut of 2,000 jobs to limit its financial losses.
In August 2021, Qantas required all of its 22,000 employees to be fully vaccinated against the virus.
In May 2022, Qantas ordered twelve A350-1000 aircraft from Airbus, to be used in non-stop flights from Sydney to London in late 2025. In the same month, Qantas agreed terms to purchase Alliance Airlines. In April 2023, the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC) opposed the takeover.
=== Non-Stop flight routes ===
In August 2022, Qantas Airways announced plans to compete in June 2023 with Air New Zealand on the non-stop Auckland–New York route. Qantas flights would originate in Sydney, before flying in 2025 on a non-stop Sydney–New York route, as part of Project Sunrise. Qantas aims to eliminate the "tyranny of distance" by developing non-stop flight routes connecting Australian cities to New York City, and to London. In February 2023, Qantas announced soaring profits of A$1.7bn for the second half of 2022, after experiencing losses due to COVID. In a development described by ABC News as a "mammoth protest vote," on 3 November 2023 nearly 83% of Qantas shareholders voted against the airline's remuneration report.
== Destinations ==
Qantas operates flightseeing charters to Antarctica on behalf of Croydon Travel. It first flew Antarctic flightseeing trips in 1977. They were suspended for a number of years due to the crash of Air New Zealand Flight 901 on Mount Erebus in 1979. Qantas restarted the flights in 1994. Although these flights do not touch down, they require specific polar operations and crew training due to factors like sector whiteout, which contributed to the 1979 Air New Zealand disaster.
With Flights 7 and 8 – a non-stop service between Sydney and Dallas/Fort Worth operated by the Airbus A380 – commencing on 29 September 2014, Qantas operated the world's longest passenger flight on the world's largest passenger aircraft. This was overtaken in March 2016 by Emirates' new Auckland-Dubai service. In 2018, after it ordered Boeing 787 aircraft, Qantas announced an intention to launch non-stop flights between Perth and London. The inaugural flight left Perth on 24 March.
On 19 March 2020, Qantas suspended all international flights and about 60% of domestic flights from the end of March until at least 31 May 2020, following expanded COVID-19 pandemic government travel restrictions.
Country 	City 	Airport 	Notes 	Refs
Australia (Australian Capital Territory)	Canberra 	Canberra Airport 	 	
Australia (New South Wales) 	Albury 	Albury Airport 	 	
Australia (New South Wales) 	Armidale 	Armidale Airport 	 	
Australia (New South Wales) 	Ballina 	Ballina Byron Gateway Airport 	 	
Australia (New South Wales) 	Broken Hill 	Broken Hill Airport 	 	
Australia (New South Wales) 	Coffs Harbour 	Coffs Harbour Airport 	 	
Australia (New South Wales) 	Dubbo 	Dubbo Airport 	 	
Australia (New South Wales) 	Lord Howe Island 	Lord Howe Island Airport 	 	
Australia (New South Wales) 	Moree 	Moree Airport 	 	
Australia (New South Wales) 	Newcastle, NSW 	Newcastle Airport 	 	
Australia (New South Wales) 	Orange 	Orange Airport 	 	
Australia (New South Wales) 	Port Macquarie 	Port Macquarie Airport 	 	
Australia (New South Wales) 	Sydney 	Sydney Airport 	Hub 	
Australia (New South Wales) 	Tamworth 	Tamworth Airport 	 	
Australia (New South Wales) 	Wagga Wagga 	Wagga Wagga Airport 	 	
Australia (Norfolk Island) 	Norfolk Island 	Norfolk Island Airport 	 	
Australia
(Northern Territory) 	Alice Springs 	Alice Springs Airport 	 	
Australia
(Northern Territory) 	Ayers Rock 	Ayers Rock Airport 	 	
Australia
(Northern Territory) 	Darwin 	Darwin International Airport 	Focus city 	
Australia (Queensland) 	Barcaldine 	Barcaldine Airport 	 	
Australia (Queensland) 	Blackall 	Blackall Airport 	 	
Australia (Queensland) 	Brisbane 	Brisbane Airport 	Hub 	
Australia (Queensland) 	Bundaberg 	Bundaberg Airport 	 	
Australia (Queensland) 	Cairns 	Cairns Airport 	Focus city 	
Australia (Queensland) 	Cloncurry 	Cloncurry Airport 	 	
Australia (Queensland) 	Emerald 	Emerald Airport 	 	
Australia (Queensland) 	Gladstone 	Gladstone Airport 	 	
Australia (Queensland) 	Gold Coast 	Gold Coast Airport 	 	
Australia (Queensland) 	Hamilton Island 	Great Barrier Reef Airport 	 	
Australia (Queensland) 	Hervey Bay 	Hervey Bay Airport 	 	
Australia (Queensland) 	Horn Island 	Horn Island Airport 	 	
Australia (Queensland) 	Longreach 	Longreach Airport 	 	
Australia (Queensland) 	Mackay 	Mackay Airport 	 	
Australia (Queensland) 	Mount Isa 	Mount Isa Airport 	 	
Australia (Queensland) 	Moranbah 	Moranbah Airport 	 	
Australia (Queensland) 	Proserpine 	Whitsunday Coast Airport 	 	
Australia (Queensland) 	Rockhampton 	Rockhampton Airport 	 	
Australia (Queensland) 	Sunshine Coast 	Sunshine Coast Airport 	 	
Australia (Queensland) 	Toowoomba 	Toowoomba Wellcamp Airport 	 	
Australia (Queensland) 	Townsville 	Townsville Airport 	 	
Australia (Queensland) 	Weipa 	Weipa Airport 	 	
Australia (South Australia) 	Adelaide 	Adelaide Airport 	Secondary hub	
Australia (South Australia) 	Kangaroo Island 	Kingscote Airport 	 	
Australia (South Australia) 	Port Lincoln 	Port Lincoln Airport 	 	
Australia (South Australia) 	Whyalla 	Whyalla Airport 	 	
Australia (Tasmania) 	Burnie 	Burnie Airport 	 	
Australia (Tasmania) 	Devonport 	Devonport Airport 	 	
Australia (Tasmania) 	Hobart 	Hobart International Airport 	 	
Australia (Tasmania) 	Launceston 	Launceston Airport 	 	
Australia (Victoria) 	Bendigo 	Bendigo Airport 	 	
Australia (Victoria) 	Melbourne 	Melbourne Airport 	Hub 	
Australia (Victoria) 	Mildura 	Mildura Airport 	 	
Australia (Western Australia) 	Broome 	Broome International Airport 	 	
Australia (Western Australia) 	Exmouth 	Learmonth Airport 	 	
Australia (Western Australia) 	Geraldton 	Geraldton Airport 	 	
Australia (Western Australia) 	Kalgoorlie 	Kalgoorlie-Boulder Airport 	 	
Australia (Western Australia) 	Karratha 	Karratha Airport 	 	
Australia (Western Australia) 	Newman 	Newman Airport 	 	
Australia (Western Australia) 	Paraburdoo 	Paraburdoo Airport 	 	
Australia (Western Australia) 	Perth 	Perth Airport 	Secondary hub	
Australia (Western Australia) 	Port Hedland 	Port Hedland International Airport 	 	
Canada 	Vancouver 	Vancouver International Airport 	 	
New Zealand 	Auckland 	Auckland Airport 	 	
New Zealand 	Christchurch 	Christchurch Airport 	 	
New Zealand 	Queenstown 	Queenstown Airport 	 	
New Zealand 	Wellington 	Wellington Airport 	 	
United Kingdom 	London 	Heathrow Airport 	 	
United States 	Dallas/Fort Worth	Dallas Fort Worth International Airport	 	
United States 	Honolulu 	Daniel K. Inouye International Airport 	 	
United States 	Los Angeles 	Los Angeles International Airport 	 	
United States 	New York City 	John F. Kennedy International Airport 	 	
United States 	San Francisco 	San Francisco International Airport 	 	
=== Codeshare agreements ===
As of October 2016, Qantas had codeshare agreements with the following airlines:
* Air France
* Air New Zealand
* American Airlines
* British Airways
* Cathay Pacific
* Emirates
* Finnair
* ITA Airways
* Japan Airlines
* KLM
=== Joint ventures ===
In addition to the above codeshares, Qantas has entered into joint ventures with the following airlines:
* American Airlines
* Emirates