Qantas: Australia’s National Airline
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’20, Qantas is the world’s second oldest airline 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 privately held, and also one of the world’s most profitable air carriers. The World Airline Awards voted Qantas third best airline in the world in 2008. Quantas and its affiliates maintain hundreds of Airbus and Boeing planes, naming each after stars, Greek gods and goddesses, famous Australian aviators, Australian birds, and Australian cities.
The name Qantas 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’77. These summer trips were suspended in’79 after the crash of Air New Zealand Flight 901 on Mt. Erebus, but restarted in’94. 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’79 disaster.
Qantas rewards loyal customers. Passengers accumulate points based on distance flown, with bonuses for travel in premium classes. Miles are available from both Qantas and Oneworld alliance flights. After criticism for the availability of reward seats, Qantas overhauled its frequent flier program in 2008. Its two new features are Any Seat rewards, allowing members to redeem any seat on the place at a price, and Points Plus Pay, which permits fliers who do not have quite enough mileage points to pay with a combination of points and cash.
Qantas was the first airline to allow mobile phone use during flights. Also, the airline provides wireless internet as well as seat-back access to email and web browsing. The Australian carrier also has an extensive in-flight entertainment system. Some planes use Total Entertainment, which is an audio/video on demand system. Other planes use the Mainscreen System, were drop-down video menus offer either recent films or television programs, depending on long the flight is.
Quantas has recently announced a program to offset its carbon emissions. The program encourages passengers to fly carbon-neutral, and allows them to pay for their offsets in either frequent flier points of cash. Qantas donates program proceeds to government-certified carbon offset projects with a Greenhouse Friendly authentication. Professional golfer Greg Norman and Olympic swimmer Ian Thorpe are representatives for the program.
Tom Martens is the content syndication coordinator for South Arica?s leading Flight comparison & Booking portal, which includes Qantas Airlines amongst others.