Qantas Airways Airlines

  About Qantas Airways

Qantas Airways Limited is the national flag carrier of Australia and is recognised as the largest airline in the country with respect to international route connectivity and fleet size. The airline is the third oldest in the world following KLM Royal Dutch Airlines and Avianca. It was founded in 1920 and completes 100 years in the aviation industry in 2020. The airline commenced its international operations for passengers in 1935. The name Qantas is an acronym which stands for "Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services". It has also been nicknamed as "The Flying Kangaroo" in the aviation industry. Qantas is one of the main founding members of the Oneworld airline alliance. Based out of Sydney's suburb of Mascot, the airline is adjacent to its main hub at Sydney Airport. In 2014, the airline owned 65 percent of the shares in the Australian domestic market while carrying about 14.9 percent of passengers travelling to and from Australia. Qantas as a slew of subsidiary airlines that operate predominantly in the regional market and on some trunk routes (or domestic routes) prevalent in Australia. These airlines fall under the QantasLink banner.

The airline owns and operates one of the biggest low-cost airlines, Jetstar Airways, which caters to the domestic routes as well as international routes from Australia and New Zealand. Qantas has also invested in all the Jetstar-branded airlines and holds a higher stake in all of them. In 1998, along with British Airways, Cathay Pacific, American Airlines and Canadian Airlines, Qantas also co-founded the Oneworld alliance. Eventually, several more airlines joined the airline alliance. Qantas' market share saw a brief dip with budget airline Virgin Blue (now Virgin Australia) entrance to cater to the domestic routes. Intending to compete with the budget airline, Qantas introduced their own version of budget carrier, Jetstar Airways, in 2001. The same year, with Jetstar Airways' creation, its competitor Ansett Australia collapsed. This led to a 90 per cent spike in Qantas' shares in the market. However, simultaneously, cut-throat competition with Virgin Australia also increased as the latter announced expansion plans.

Using the Jetstar subsidiary, Qantas has expanded tremendously in the aviation market catering to domestic routes in Australia and international routes majorly connecting Asian cities and New Zealand. Along with Jetstar Airways, the airline further announced similar modelled budget airlines such as Jetstar Pacific and Jetstar Asia Airways. Qantas is known to have contributed tremendously to the aviation market with the constant creation of various subsidiary airlines. While many failed to take off the way the airline intended them to, that hasn't stopped the parent airline from establishing newer subsidiaries. Some of the famous airline subsidiaries introduced by Qantas include QantasLink, Australia Asia Airlines, Jetstar Airways, Impulse Airlines, Jetconnect, Australian Airlines and Qantas freight as well. During its years as one of the oldest airline, Qantas has seen all sides of the financial scenarios from losses to profits. There was a brief period in the illustrious history of Qantas when the airline reported losses. This resulted in downgrading sources, facilities, fleet and even staff. After suffering from some losses, the airline returned to its profit-making structure in 2015. Further, the airline also sold off its lease of Sydney Airport's Terminal 3.

Fleet size of Qantas

Qantas Airways' fleet size as of 2020 stands at 126. The airline only has variant aircraft from the Airbus and Boeing family. The current fleet comprises aircraft such as 18 Airbus A330-200s, 10 Airbus A330-300s, 12 Airbus A380-800s, 75 Boeing 737-800s and 11 Boeing 787-9s. They have also ordered for additional three Boeing 787-9s. In 2012, the airline announced that they were cancelling their order of 35 Boeing 787-9s due to heavy losses incurred. However, they did hold on to the 15 aircraft Boeing 787-8s order to add to the Jetstar Airways' fleet. In 2015, the airline stated that they would be ordering eight Boeing 787-9s, delivery of the same was expected in 2017.

In 2019, the airline made quite a few orders and cancellations. At the Paris Air Show, Qantas Group stated that they would be converting their 26 Airbus A321neos to A321XLR variants. Similarly, they planned to make a few more conversions with their aircraft, including A321neos to A321LRs and A321XLRs. This led to Qantas Group to accommodate a total of 109 aircraft from the Airbus A320neo family. The same year, they also announced that a select few of their Airbus A350-1000 would be used as non-stop flights from Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne to connect to international destinations such as Paris, New York, Cape Town, Paris, Frankfurt and Rio de Janeiro.

Baggage Allowance

Qantas Group has a consolidated list of baggage allowance criteria that they have uploaded on their official website, along with a calculator. Passengers who are opting for Qantas Airways can learn more about their baggage allowance deals and whether it works in their favour. As per their policy, the airline accommodates about 50 kg and 40 kg weighing baggage from first class and business class passengers respectively. The weight could vary depending on whether the member is part of the airline's frequent flyer programme. Similarly, the airline allows 40 kg and 30 kg weight for passengers travelling from premium economy and economy class respectively.

The baggage allowance policy as mentioned here applies to all international routes of Qantas Airways except for North and South America. The dimension of the bags should all individually be not more than 158 cm. The same can be calculated using the airline's baggage calculator. Purchase of additional baggage is also allowed with weights that depend on the cabin class of the passenger or the ticket type. As for hand baggage, the airline allows business class passengers to carry one piece of baggage that should not weigh more than 10 kg and can be accommodated with an accessory bag. The dimension for the same should not be more than 115 cm.

In-flight services

Qantas' in-flight services have won several accolades and praise by commuters and critics for being one of the best in the world. They offer a series of facilities onboard starting from comfortable seating with personalised entertainment systems to delicious in-flight meals. The airline's in-flight staff are quite friendly and cater to the requirements of the passengers with a big smile on their faces. The aircraft also comes with premium class cabins to economy class cabins that enable travellers from all walks of life to journey together.

Popular routes and top cities for Qantas

Qantas is one of the few international airlines to operate charters to Antarctica and does the same on behalf of Croydon Travel. The first flightseeing trip to Antarctica took place in 1977. However, the services were suspended for many years due to a crash of the New Zealand Flight 901. Eventually, in 1994, Qnatast restarted flightseeing charters to the continent. Qantas has a slew of operations to various international routes and domestic routes that make it one of the largest in the continent and also in the world. Over the years, the airline has introduced various popular routes from Sydney to North America, the Middle East, the United Kingdom and more. The airline brought forth a non-stop service from Sydney to Dallas/Fort Worth in 2014, which is operated by Airbus A380. Some of its top international destinations include Hong Kong, Denpasar, Jakarta, Tokyo, Osaka, Auckland, Queenstown, Christchurch, Singapore, Bangkok, London, Dallas, Los Angeles, New York City - JFK and San Francisco. They have terminated a huge list of international destinations, following the coronavirus pandemic.

The airline has also signed some agreements and tie-ups with international airlines to accommodate more international routes. Some of its codeshare agreements are with airlines such as Air France, Alaska Airlines, China Eastern Airlines, Jetstar Airways, SriLankan Airlines, Air New Zealand, American Airlines, China Southern Airlines, Jetstar Asia Airways, Vietnam Airlines, Air Niugini, Asiana Airlines, Bangkok Airways, British Airways, Emirates, Fiji Airways, Japan Airlines, Cathay Pacific, Jetstar Japan, Vietnam Airlines and more.

Why travel by Qantas?

Qantas Airways is a known brand that has been offering the best of airline facilities as well as in-flight services for nearly 100 years now. It has expanded tremendously in recent years by accommodating some convenient facilities such as web check-ins, receiving flight status, booking a Qantas flight online or by their mobile app and to know more about their baggage allowance. In fact, you can even purchase extra baggage through their app and keep all flight-related details on the phone. The mobile app also has details of Qantas flight schedules that would help the passenger plan out the journey with more convenience. Further, the airline has also tied up with international airlines to bring forth better frequent flyer programmes that would benefit their regular customers. Qantas has also included newer routes and destinations both, domestic and international, to ensure better connectivity. The fleet size of Qantas has also enhanced to accommodate better aircraft that would cater to world-class facilities and amenities in-flight and give passengers the experience of a lifetime.