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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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