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.[12][13] 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.[14][15] Qantas is a founding member of the Oneworld airline alliance.[16]
This article is about the airline. For other uses, see Qantas (disambiguation).IATA
16 November 1920
Winton, Queensland, Australia
2 November 1922[1]
CASA.AOC.0001[2]
- QantasLink
- Jetstar
- Qantas Freight
- Qantas Holidays
- Express Ground Handling
- Qantas Ground Services
- TripADeal (51%)[5]
125[6]
104[7]
- ASX: QAN
- S&P/ASX 200 component
Mascot, New South Wales, Australia[8]
- Richard Goyder[9] AO (Chairman)
- Vanessa Hudson (CEO)
A$2.47 billion (2023)[10]
A$20.3 billion (2023)[10]
A$10 million (2023)[10]
23,500 (2023)[11]
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.[17][18]
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.[19] 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.
Oneworld and Jetstar[edit]
In 1998, Qantas co-founded the Oneworld alliance with American Airlines, British Airways, Canadian Airlines, and Cathay Pacific.[39] with other airlines joining subsequently.
With the entry of new discount airline Virgin Blue, now Virgin Australia, into the domestic market in 2000,[40] 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.[41]
Qantas briefly revived the Australian Airlines name as a short-lived international budget airline between 2002 and 2006.[42] 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.[43] 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.[44]
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).[45] QF9 was a 17-hour, 14,498 km (9,009-mile) journey from Perth Airport in Western Australia to London Heathrow.[46][47]
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.[48]
Non-Stop flight routes[edit]
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.[66] In February 2023, Qantas announced soaring profits of A$1.7bn for the second half of 2022, after experiencing losses due to COVID.[67] 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.[68]
Liveries[edit]
Indigenous Art liveries[182][edit]
Two Qantas aircraft are currently painted in an Indigenous Australian art scheme. One aircraft, a Boeing 737-800 registered as VH-XZJ, wears a livery called Mendoowoorrji, which was revealed in November 2013.[183] The design was drawn from the late West Australian Aboriginal artist Paddy Bedford.[184] The second, a Boeing 787 registered VH-ZND, is adorned in a paint scheme inspired by the late Emily Kame Kngwarreye's 1991 painting Yam Dreaming. The adaptation of Yam Dreaming to the aircraft, led by Balarinji, a Sydney-based and Aboriginal-owned design firm, incorporates the red Qantas tailfin into the design, which includes white dots with red and orange tones. The design depicts the yam plant, an important and culturally significant symbol in Kngwarreye's Dreaming stories, and a staple food source in her home region of Utopia. The design was applied to the aircraft during manufacture, prior to its delivery in March 2018 to Alice Springs Airport, situated 230 kilometres southeast of Utopia, where the aircraft was met by Kngwarreye's descendants, the local community, and Qantas executives.[185][186] The aircraft would later operate Qantas' inaugural nonstop services between Perth and London Heathrow, and between Melbourne and San Francisco, scheduled with Boeing 787 aircraft.[187][188]
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