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WELCOME ABOARD Qantas Airways
Qantas Airways Limited is the national airline of Australia. The name was originally "QANTAS", an acronym/initialism for "Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services". Nicknamed "The Flying Kangaroo", the airline is based in Sydney, with its main hub at Sydney Airport. It is Australia's largest airline and the world's second oldest continuously operating airline. Qantas headquarters are located in the Qantas Centre in the Mascot suburb of the City of Botany Bay, Sydney, New South Wales. Currently the airline is considered a four-star airline by research consultancy firm Skytrax. In 2010, Qantas was voted the seventh best airline in the world by the firm, a drop from 2009 (sixth), 2008 (third), 2007 (fifth), 2006 (second), and 2005 (second). Qantas was founded in Winton, Queensland on 16 November 1920 as Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services Limited. The airline's first aircraft was an Avro 504K. The airline flew internationally from May 1935, when it commenced service from Darwin to Singapore. In June 1959 Qantas entered the jet age when the first Boeing 707-138 was delivered. Qantas flies to 19 domestic destinations and 21 international destinations in 14 countries across Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe and Oceania excluding the destinations served by its subsidiaries. Domestically, Qantas advertises all direct flights between Adelaide, Brisbane, Canberra, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney as Qantas CityFlyer. Qantas, along with British Airways, Delta Air Lines, Emirates Airlines, Korean Air, Malaysia Airlines, Qatar Airways, South African Airways, and United Airlines, is one of only nine airlines that fly to all six inhabited continents. As of June 2010 Qantas and its subsidiaries operate 256 aircraft.
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