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Eastern Australia Airlines

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Eastern Australia Airlines
IATA ICAO Call sign
QF EAQ Q LINK
(Formerly 'EASTERN')
Founded1949
HubsSydney Airport, Melbourne Airport
Frequent-flyer programQantas Frequent Flyer
AllianceOneworld
Fleet size19[1]
Destinations25
Parent companyQantas Airways Pty Ltd
HeadquartersMascot, Australia

Eastern Australia Airlines Pty Ltd is an airline based on the grounds of Sydney Airport in Mascot, City of Botany Bay, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.[2] It is a regional domestic airline serving sixteen destinations within Australia under the QantasLink banner; and since December 2015 six destinations in New Zealand, on behalf of Jetstar Airways. Its main base is Sydney Airport, with a hub at Melbourne Airport.[3]

History

The airline was established and started operations in 1949. It began in Tamworth as a one-aircraft, one-pilot operation, known as Tamworth Air Taxi Service (soon after to be shortened to Tamair), serving farming communities in New South Wales and Queensland. After 36 years of expansion and amalgamation with several smaller commuter operators, the current name was adopted in 1987. Australian Airlines purchased 26% of Eastern Australian Airlines from East-West Airlines in 1988, and the airline became a wholly owned subsidiary in 1991. Qantas purchased Australian Airlines in 1992.

In 2002, Qantas merged its Mildura-based subsidiary Southern Australia Airlines with Eastern, the resulting operation using the Eastern name.

In August 2008 it was announced that Eastern Australia would shortly commence operating 72-seat Bombardier Dash 8 Q400 aircraft on services to regional centres in New South Wales, supplementing services with smaller 50-seat Dash 8s and allowing the removal of 36-seat Dash 8s from service on some routes altogether with the retirement of all 100 series Dash 8s.[4]

In June 2015, Qantas Group chief executive Alan Joyce announced that Eastern Australia would operate regional services in New Zealand, using Jetstar-branded Bombardier Dash 8 turboprops.[5]

Destinations

An Eastern Australia DHC-8-201 at rest at the Sydney main base. The pink ribbon forward of the entry door is to advertise QantasLink's support of breast cancer research, while aft of the door is the Oneworld logo

Eastern Australia Airlines operates services to the following domestic scheduled destinations. In December 2015 Eastern Australian Airlines began regional domestic services within New Zealand under the Jetstar brand.[6]

Australia
From Sydney
From Melbourne
From Adelaide
From Port Macquarie


New Zealand
From Auckland
From Wellington

Fleet

An Eastern Australia Airlines Bombardier DHC-8 Q300 at Wagga Wagga Airport

As of February 2016 the Eastern Australia Airlines fleet consists of the following aircraft:[1]

Eastern Australia Airlines fleet
Aircraft Total Notes
de Havilland Canada DHC-8-200 3
Bombardier DHC-8 Q300 16 Five operated in New Zealand on behalf of Jetstar Airways;[7] three more to be transferred by end of June 2016[8]

References

  1. ^ a b Australian civil aircraft register search, using "Eastern Australia Airlines" as the search parameter. Search conducted 23 February 2016
  2. ^ "World Airline Directory." Flight International. 23–29 March 2004. 66.
  3. ^ "Directory: World Airlines". Flight International. 3 April 2007. p. 75.
  4. ^ "QantasLink Announces New Q400 Schedule for NSW"; Qantas Media Release. Retrieved 6 September 2008.
  5. ^ Bradley, Grant (18 June 2015). "Regional shake-up: Jetstar to break Air New Zealand's domestic stranglehold". The New Zealand Herald. NZME. Retrieved 19 June 2015.
  6. ^ Qantas online schedule. Accessed 16 December 2009.
  7. ^ "Our Fleet" - Jetstar Airways retrieved 23 February 2016
  8. ^ Qantas expects first A320neo delivery end of calendar 2017
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