Travel Suggestions Blog

Flagship carrier for Australia is Qantas, which maintains a major hub at Sydney International Airport and smaller hubs at Brisbane, Melbourne, and Perth. Qantas also runs international flights to and from Perth, Brisbane, Los Angeles, London, and Singapore.

Founded in 1920, Qantas is the world’s second oldest airlines in continuous operation, and the oldest airline in continuous operation in the English-speaking world. It maintains membership in the Oneworld alliance, one of the planet’s premier airline alliance programs.

Qantas is both privately held and of the world’s very most profitable airlines. Voted third best in the world by the World Airline Awards in 2008, Qantas and its subsidiaries maintain hundreds of Boeing and Airbus planes, naming each after Australian aviators, Australian cities, Australian cities, Greek gods and goddesses, and stars.

Always spelled without a “u,” the name of the airline actually is an acronym for “Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services.”

Adventure seekers who want to Antarctica can fly Qantas charters organized by Croydon Travel. Qantas flew its first Antarctic sight-seeing trips in 1977. These summer trips were suspended in 1979 after the crash of Air New Zealand Flight 901 on Mt. Erebus, but restarted in 1994. Antarctic flights now require specific crew training in polar operations so that pilots and crew can handle whiteouts such as those that contributed to the 1979 disaster.

Qantas rewards frequent fliers with points based on distance flown, with additional points for travel in first and business class. Miles may be earned and spent on both Qantas and Oneworld alliance carriers. Following criticism of its rewards program in 2008 over the unavailability of reward seats, Qantas introduced Any Seat rewards, allowing members to pay for any seat on a flight, and Points Plus Pay, allowing members to qualify for travel with a combination of points and cash payments.

Qantas is the first airline to offer mobile phone usage during flight.  In addition, the airline offers wireless internet access as well as seat-back access to email and cached web browsing.  Qantas also has an extensive in-flight entertainment system.  There are two systems.  One is an audio/video on demand system called the Total Entertainment System.  The other entertainment system is the Mainscreen System, where drop-down video screens show either movies or television programs, depending on the length of the flight.

Qantas recently announced its scheme to reduce its carbon footprint. It now allows passengers to fly carbon neutral, and to pay for their contribution to the carbon offset plan in either cash or frequent flier points. Qantas donates the proceeds of the program to verified offset projects with a government-certified Green Friendly certification. Olympian and swimmer Ian Thorpe and professional golfer Greg Norman are the program’s spokesmen.