Qantas Airlines Business Class
Qantas Airlines is the third oldest airline in the world. It’s first flight was an amazing 99 years ago in 1920. Only KLM and Avianca have been operating longer than the Australian based airlines.
Qantas Airlines was founded by World War I hero Paul McGinness and Hudson Fysh in Winton, Queensland. The airline initially was founded to serve and link Queensland with the Northern Territory. It connected the two cities for business as well as vacations and delivered mail for the Australian government.
Qantas made its first international flight from Darwin to Singapore in 1935 using a De Havilland 86. An incredible feat back in 1935. The trip took almost two days with a stopover in Rambang, Indonesia. Singapore back in the day was still part of Malaysia back then.
In the 1930’s, Qantas offers what they call its “Kangaroo Service”. It was a flight from Darwin to Singapore and continued to London with stops in Myanmar, Pakistan, India, Sharjah, Iraq, Cairo, Alexandria, Crete and Italy where passengers had to take a train to Paris. From Paris, passengers would take a final plane to London. Total journey was 20,235 km.
QANTAS stands for Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Service. Which is a very literal translation for exactly what the airline was founded for which is flying between Queensland and the Northern Territory otherwise known as the Sunshine State and the Top End.
Qantas purchased its first jet in 1959. A Boeing 707, which made its first flight in 1959 taking off from Sydney to San Francisco with stops both in Fiji and Honolulu, Hawaii before making to San Francisco. John Travolta, the Hollywood actor owned a Boeing 707, and when he learned that he had the only Boeing 707 left on earth he donated the jet to the Historical Aircraft Restoration society based in Sydney.
In 1998, Qantas co-founded the OneWorld Alliance along with American Airlines, Bristish Airways, Canadian Airlines and Cathay Pacific. It is considered the best alliance in the airline industry as far as ratings. It has received the Skytrak best alliance several years in a row. Other airlines to join are Qatar Airways and Japan Airlines.
The almost 14,000 kilometer flight from Dallas to Sydney used to be the world’s longest flight until Qatar Airways launched its direct Doha to Auckland service in 2017. The flight takes 17 hours and 5 minutes. The flight uses an Airbus A380-800 which is the largest passenger aircraft in the world.
In March of 2018, the first ever direct link between Australia and Europe happened with a flight between Perth International Airport and London’s Heathrow Airport. The flight was operated by a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner jet which is capable to cover the 17 hour journey.
Qantas Flight 32 was a flight in November of 2010 which had to make an emergency landing at Singapore Airport 2 hours after it departed due to massive amounts of fuel leaking from the plane. The failure was the first of its kind for the Super Jumbo, the world’s largest passenger airplane.