Qantas Celebrated Its 100th Anniversary By Retracing Its Journey

Qantas and Australia Post are replicating the first airmail and passenger service a century after the first customer and a bag of letters made their way over the Queensland outback.

It’s been 100 years since the airline first took flight, on November 2, 2022. Travellers with ties to the early Queensland airmail services, elite frequent fliers, and family members of Qantas founders were flown on QF661, which followed the specially convened flightpath. Community members who helped pave the way for what is now Australia’s national airline will also be flying in for the celebration.

As noted by Qantas Group CEO Alan Joyce, the trip was a watershed event in Australian aviation history and a major achievement for both companies, he said.

The pioneering spirit of our founders a century ago is still firmly embedded in the fabric of Qantas. Our inaugural flight was a “little beginning which would blossom into one of the greatest services in the world,” as our founding chairman Fergus McMaster predicted.

Inaugurating Qantas as a corporation in November 1920, its founders spent the next two years flying joyriders, raising money, procuring aircraft, and organising the first air route in preparation for regular operation.

The centenary flight, operated by a Bombardier Q400 turboprop, will replicate the 882-kilometre route flown by the original Qantas pilots and founders on November 2 and 3, 1922, from Charleville to Longreach and by Hudson Fysh from Longreach to Cloncurry in an open cockpit FK8 biplane.

A replica mailbag will fly 106 handwritten letters from schoolchildren in Charleville to kids in Longreach and Cloncurry.

“With our Airbus A350s on order, Qantas has gone from that solitary biplane flight 100 years ago to the edge of a new era of aviation, positioning us to carry people and parcels direct from Australia to any city in the globe,” Joyce said. Qantas and Australia Post have a long and successful relationship, transporting mail and freight for Australians, just as we did on that inaugural flight. The growing increase of internet shopping and the associated need for air freight is only increasing that partnership.”

The airline has 11 freighters specifically for Australia Post and expects a surge in online shopping throughout the holiday season.

Australia Post CEO/MD Paul Graham: said “One hundred years on from our inaugural airmail flight, our partnership with Qantas continues to go from strength to strength. In the same way that receiving letters and packages from loved ones was valued a century ago, it remains a significant part of people’s lives today”.

Qantas is converting an A330 wide-body plane for use exclusively by Australia Post. The renovated freighter will have a capacity of about 42 tons for each flight, roughly doubling the capacity of the A321 freighters currently used by Australia Post. By joining the persistent shift towards online shopping in Australia, the A330 freighter is scheduled to begin operations in 2023.

A further six A321P2Fs have been approved for addition to the Qantas Freight fleet beginning in 2023. These aircraft will be 60% larger than the Boeing 737s they will replace and up to 35% more fuel efficient.