Qantas Airlines was founded on 16 November 1920 and commenced its operations in March 1921. It is Australia's flag carrier, the country's largest airline by fleet size, international destination and international flights. The airline company is the third-largest airline which is still in operation. It began the international passenger flights in May 1935.

Qantas is the acronym for the original name, Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services. The airline company is the founding member of the Oneworld airline alliance. It is based in the Sydney suburb of Mascot, and it is adjacent to its central hub at the Sydney airport.

As of March 2014, the airline company had a mere 65 per cent share of the Australian domestic market, and it also carried 14.9% of all the passengers travelling into and out of the country.

Various subsidiary airlines operate to the regional centres on some trunk routes within the country under the QantasLink banner. The airline owns Jetstar, which is a low-cost airline which operates from international services from Australia and domestic services within New Zealand and Australia.

History

The airline company was founded in Winton by Hudson Fysh, Fergus McMaster and Paul McGinness. Avro 504K was the first aircraft, and it moved its headquarters to Longreach in 1921 and Brisbane in 1930.

QEA Era

QANTAS and Britain's Imperial Airways formed a new company in 1934, and the new airline commenced operations in December 1934 and flew between Brisbane and Darwin.

The airline flew internationally from May 1935, and the service from Darwin was also extended to Singapore. After the commencement of World War 2, enemy actions and accidents destroyed half of the fleet of ten.

With the flights between the Swan River, Western Australia and Koggala Lake, the flying boat services were resumed in 1943. It linked up with the British Overseas Airways Corporation service to London.

QEA began the first services outside the British Empire to a city like Tokyo, and the services to Hong Kong also began around the same time.

Jet age

Qantas Airlines entered the jet age when the First ever Boeing 707-138 was delivered in June 1959. Qantas, then merged with nationally owned domestic airline Australian Airlines on 14 September 1992 and Qantas was also privatized between 1993 and 1997.

Oneworld and Jetstar

Qantas co-founded the Oneworld alliance with British, Canadian, Cathay Pacific, and American airlines in 1998. The other airlines also joined subsequently. Virgin Blue, a new discount airline, entered the domestic market in 2000. Qantas also created the budget Jetstar in 2001.

2001-2019