Qantas: Australia’s National Airline
February 27, 2009 by Tom Martens
Filed under Flights
Qantas Airlines is the national airline of Australia. Qantas is Australia?s largest airline with its main hub at Sydney International Airport. Qantas also has hubs at Melbourne Airport, Brisbane Airport and Perth Airport. Qantas operates international flights into Brisbane, Parth, Singapore, Los Angeles and London.
The world’s second oldest airline in continuous operation and the oldest airline in the English-speaking world, Quantas was founded in 1920. It is a member of the Oneworld alliance, one of the world’s largest 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.
The name Qantas is an acronym for ?Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services.?
Qantas operates flight seeing charters to Antarctica on behalf of Croydon Travel. They first flew Antarctic flight seeing trips in 1977.They were suspended in 1979 due to the crash of Air New Zealand Flight 901 on Mt Erebus and were restarted in 1994. The flights now require specific polar operations and crew training due to the whiteouts which contributed to the Air New Zealand 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.
The first airline to allow cell phone use during flights, Qantas also provides seat-back access to email and web browsing and wireless internet. It also offers an extensive in-flight entertainment system. Some planes use Mainscreen, where drop-down video menus offer either television programs or recent films, depending on the length of the flight. Other planes use Total Entertainment, which is an on-demand audio/video system.
Qantas recently announced a plan to reduce the airline?s carbon footprint. This works by passengers choosing to fly carbon neutral and then offsetting their own flight emissions by making a small donation to the Qantas program, either in the form of cash or frequent flyer mile points. Qantas donates the money to verifiable carbon offset projects that have met the necessary government requirements to be eligible for Greenhouse Friendly accreditation. Olympic swimmer Ian Thorpe and professional golfer Greg Norman are the program?s ambassadors.