Qantas
Qantas is Australia's oldest and largest airline, and the world's third oldest airline (after KLM and Avianca). Its IATA designator is QF.
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2 Current fleet 3 Destinations 4 Other facts of interest |
History
The company was founded on 16 November 1920 as "Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services Limited", but soon became known simply as Qantas, and adopted that name officially.
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Qantas was nationalised in 1947 by the Australian Labor Party Federal Government when Ben Chifley was Prime Minister. It remained in public ownership for over four decades until the 1990s, and was successfully privatised, with British Airways now owning a significant stake.
Since the merger with Australian Airlines in 1995, it has flown an extensive schedule between all Australian capital cities, as well as many regional cities and towns. It also flies many international routes to and from Australia.
Qantas has a reputation for being an aggressive competitor in the Australian aviation market. Over the years, several domestic Australian airlines have gone out of business amid complaints of anti-competitive pricing by Qantas and exorbitant prices on the newly non-competitive routes. After September 2001, and the collapse of Ansett Airlines, Qantas held a near monopoly on the Australian domestic air travel market. Virgin Blue, a cut-price competitor, has eaten into this market share somewhat, and Qantas has responded by creating a new, cut-price subsidiary airline named JetStar. Qantas hopes that this move will "crowd out" the cut-price segment of the market, allowing Qantas to remain the superdominant player in the Australian domestic aviation market and one of the few profitable full-service airlines in the world.
Qantas has attempted to expand into the New Zealand domestic air travel market, first with a shareholding in Air New Zealand, then by a franchise takeover of Ansett New Zealand. As of July 2003, they were awaiting regulatory approval to purchase a larger (but still minority) stake in Air New Zealand.
It is often claimed that Qantas has never had a fatal crash. However, the company's official line is that it has never lost a JET aircraft. Prior to the jet era, Qantas had fatal crashes -one on July 16, 1951, when a Qantas deHavilland Drover registered VH-EBQ crashed in New Guinea after an engine failure, killing all 7 passengers and crew. Other fatal accidents occurred in 1927, 1934, 1942, 1943 (2), and 1944.
Current fleet
On order:
(As of 2002)Destinations
This list does not include destinations served by associated regional carriers.Africa
Asia
East Asia
South Asia
Southeast Asia
Europe
North America
Oceania
Other facts of interest
Members of the oneworld Alliance
Aer Lingus | American Airlines | British Airways | Cathay Pacific | Finnair | Iberia Airlines | LanChile | Qantas
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