Qantas is the national airline of Australia. With a fleet of more than 130 aircraft, the oneworld member serves around 80 destinations in the whole world. The airline is the safest and second oldest continually existing airline in the world.
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Qantas was founded as Queensland and Northern Territorial Aerial Service Limited on November 16, 1920. It originally transported air mail from Queensland to the Outback.
In 1934, Qantas and Imperial Airways, the forerunner of British Airways, formed a new company, Qantas Empire Airways Ltd (QEA). It operated flights from Brisbane to Singapore, while Imperial operated the rest of the route through to London.
Almost the complete QEA fleet was taken over by the Australian government for war services during WWII (1939-1945). Most of the aircraft were destroyed in action.
As a consequence, the airline was in severe financial trouble after the war and taken over by the Australian government. It also bought the British owned shares, which made QEA Ltd. a public company, 100% of the shares being owned by the government.
The route from Sydney to London was operated almost immediately after the war in cooperation with British Overseas Airways Cooperation (BOAC). Avro Lancaster aircraft and Lockheed L.1049 Constellations were used. Also, Qantas began to cross the Pacific in 1954, taking over the routes of BCPA.
The name was changed into Qantas Airways Ltd. in 1967.
In 1990, Qantas established Australia Asia Airlines operating services to Taiwan. The airline ceased operations in 1996.
In 1993, Qantas bought Australian Airlines, which enabled it to operate flights between all major Australian cities very frequently, as well as serving many regional towns and international destinations. The company was privatised in 1995.
Qantas is known as an aggressive competitor, which forced several Australian airlines to resign. After the collapse of Ansett Australia in September 2001, Qantas almost held a monopoly on domestic flights in Australia, until Virgin Blue, which had been founded in August 2000, managed to take over Ansett’s market shares.
Qantas responded by launching its own low-fare airline, Jetstar. By the end of 2004, Qantas had also entered the Asian cut-price market, using its new subsidiary Jetstar Asia. It is part of Qantas’ battle against Singapore Airlines, which is the second-largest operator of flights to and from Australia.
In 2006, Qantas continued to expand the Jetstar network, introducing new routes the mother company could not serve profitably. Jetstar International will for example fly to Japan, Hawaii and Indonesia, using A330 aircraft being replaced by Boeing 787 as soon as they are available.
Qantas also successfully entered the New Zealand market by first investing into Air New Zealand and then buying Ansett New Zealand. Today Qantas owns and operates JetConnect.
It will be the second airline (after Singapore Airlines) receiving the A380-800. It has ordered 12 aircraft with an option for another ten.
Qantas claims never to have had any severe accidents involving Qantas jet planes, although in the years from 1921 to 1951 several fatal accidents causing casualties occurred. Nevertheless the airline is the safest airline in the world today.
With its fleet of more than 130 aircraft Qantas reaches around 80 destinations throughout the world.
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