Kangaroo Route

A Qantas Boeing 747 with the kangaroo livery on display.

The Kangaroo Route traditionally refers to air routes flown by Qantas between the countries of Australia and the United Kingdom, via the Eastern Hemisphere. The term is trademarked by Qantas, although it is used in the media and by airline competitors.^{[citation needed]}

By 2003 over 20 airlines operated the route. Qantas, British Airways and Virgin Atlantic Airways offer a continuous flight number, albeit with a single stopover, and only from Melbourne Airport and Sydney Airport.^{[citation needed]}

History

In 1935 Qantas started flying passengers to Singapore in a De Havilland 86 to connect with a London-bound Imperial Airways. The Kangaroo Route was first flown by Qantas on 1 December 1947. A Lockheed Constellation ferried 29 passengers and 11 crew from Sydney to London, with stopovers in Darwin, Singapore, Calcutta (Kolkata), Karachi, Cairo and Tripoli (passengers would stay overnight in Singapore and Cairo). A return fare was £585, equivalent to 130 weeks average pay. Qantas changed the routing to variably include other interline stops, including Frankfurt, Zürich, Athens, Belgrade, Rome, Beirut, Tehran, Bombay and Colombo.^{[citation needed]}

From January 1958 Qantas had a round-the-world network with aircraft flying Australia to Europe westward on the Kangaroo Route and eastward on the "Southern Cross Route" (via the United States and the Pacific). In 1964 Qantas started a third route to London via Tahiti, Mexico and the Caribbean, called the "Fiesta Route". Qantas dropped their transatlantic flights in the 1970s (and dropped the Fiesta Route entirely) but other airlines, such as Air New Zealand, still fly from Australia to London via the Western Hemisphere.^{[citation needed]}

From 1959 Qantas introduced Boeing 707s to the Kangaroo Route, and in 1971 added Boeing 747s. These aircraft cut the time required to travel from Europe and Australia, as well as the number of stopovers (from the late 1970s flights would typically travel via Singapore and Bahrain). Fares dramatically fell in cost, opening air travel to more people, with Qantas subject to increasing competition on the Kangaroo Route by other carriers.^{[citation needed]}

In September 1965, Qantas launched the first V-Jet service through Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, for the Sydney–Kuala Lumpur–London route.^{[citation needed]}

In 1989, Qantas established a world distance record for commercial jets when it flew a Boeing 747–400 non stop from London to Sydney, taking just over 20 hours.

By 2003, some twenty airlines operated services between the United Kingdom and Australia including Air China, Air New Zealand, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, China Airlines, China Eastern Airlines, Emirates, Ethiad Airways, Japan Airlines, Korean Air, Malaysia Airlines, Qantas, Thai Airways, Singapore Airlines, and Virgin Atlantic.

Since 16 January 2009, Qantas has operated some services using Airbus A380 aircraft.

Entry of Gulf Operators

Gulf operators such as Emirates, Etihad and Qatar now dominate the frequencies into Sydney and Melbourne with the likes of Emirates pulling off triple dailies.

This is impacting other airlines which are finding difficult to survive on the Kangaroo route, for example British Airways has very much reduced its frequencies, and Qantas also halved their frequencies on both of their London to Sydney and London to Melbourne routes in early 2012. Other notable surviving operators are Singapore Airlines, Malaysia Airlines and Thai Airways funelling traffic through their respective hubs at Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok.

In literature

The book Beyond the Blue Horizon by travel correspondent Alexander Frater documents the author's attempt to fly all the sectors on the original 1935 Imperial/Qantas London-Brisbane route in 1984.^{[citation needed]}