Qantas Airlines: Flagship Carrier for Australia

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.

Qantas Airlines was founded in’20 and is the second oldest continuously operating airline in the world, as well as the oldest operating airline in the English speaking world. It is a member of the Oneworld alliance, one of the largest airline alliance programs in the world.

Qantas Airlines is a private company and one of the most profitable airlines in the world. Qantas Airlines was voted Third Best Airline in the World in the 2008 World Airline Awards. The company and its affiliates maintain hundreds of aircraft and fly Airbus and Boeing planes. Qantas names its aircrafts after Greek gods, stars, famous Australian aviators, Australian birds and Australian cities.

The name Qantas is an acronym for ?Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services.?

Adventure travelers seeking to tour Antarctica can fly on Qantas charters booked by Croydon Travel. Qantas flew its first tours of Antarctica in’77. These tours were suspended in’79 after the disastrous crash of Air New Zealand Flight 901 on Mt. Erebus, but were restarted the summer of’94. Qantas ensures that all its Antarctic flight crews have had extensive training in polar operations and know what to do in whiteouts, such as those that contributed to the’79 Air New Zealand 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.

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.

Tom Martens is the content syndication coordinator for South Arica?s leading Flight comparison & Booking portal, which includes Qantas Airlines amongst others.

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