Kangaroo route

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An Airbus A380 of the Qantas airline with the characteristic kangaroo logo on the tail unit.

The Kangaroo Route (or Kangaroo Service ) is a general term originally used by the Qantas airline for flight routes from Europe to Australasia .

history

Qantas began offering flights from Australia to Singapore as early as 1935 . From Singapore there were again connecting flights with Imperial Airways to London . This route was called the " Empire Route ". After the capture of Singapore by Japanese troops, the " Empire Route " had to be abandoned in February 1942. In order to be able to continue to carry mail and passengers between Australia and Great Britain, Qantas acquired two amphibious aircraft of the type Consolidated PBY Catalina . These machines, equipped with eight additional tanks, were used on a new connection from Perth to Colombo ( Ceylon ) from July 10, 1943 and mainly transported government mail. The flight time on the approximately 5,800 km long route was more than 27 hours. From the end of 1944, two Consolidated B-24 Liberator bombers converted to transport aircraft were also operated on the route to Ceylon, which Qantas had received from the Royal Australian Air Force . The aircraft could also carry up to 15 passengers. The Liberator's flight route led from Perth via the RAAF Learmonth base near Exmouth (Western Australia) to a Royal Air Force airfield around 180 km northeast of Colombo and from there to Karachi ( Pakistan ). In Karachi, BOAC took over the onward transport to Great Britain. Qantas first referred to this route as the “ Kangaroo Service ”.

The " Kangaroo route " via Ceylon to Great Britain was served for the first time in June 1945 with an Avro Lancastrian without changing aircraft , with the 63-hour flight ending at Hurn Airport near Bournemouth (all London airports at that time were still war-related for the Civil aviation blocked). From May 1946 the old route via Singapore was used again. BOAC and Qantas operated this route in cooperation until the end of 1947.

After Qantas was nationalized in 1947 and the collaboration with BOAC ended, it marketed its London service from December 1, 1947 as the “ Kangaroo Route ”. The route from Sydney to London was flown with brand new Lockheed Constellations , which made stopovers in Darwin, Singapore, Calcutta, Karachi, Cairo and Tripoli. The return ticket was £ 585, which was the average wage of 130 working weeks at the time.

From January 1958, as an alternative to the “ Kangaroo Route ”, Qantas also flew the connection known as the “ Southern Cross Route ” from Australia via the Pacific and North America to London. In 1964, an additional route to London was set up, the " Fiesta Route ", which led via Tahiti , Mexico and the Caribbean . In the 1970s, Qantas discontinued its scheduled flights on the " Fiesta Route " and the " Southern Cross Route ". Air New Zealand continues to fly the “ Southern Cross Route ” to this day .

With the beginning of the jet age, Qantas first used the Boeing 707 on the “ Kangaroo Route ” in 1959 , and from 1971 also the Boeing 747 . The use of these aircraft reduced the required travel time, the number of stopovers and thus also the costs. As the flight tickets became so cheaper, air travel on this route was now accessible to more passengers. At the same time, Qantas faced increasing competition from European airlines, which in turn had set up connections to Australia. In the 1970s and 1980s, the " Kangaroo Route " was flown by Alitalia , British Airways , JAT , KLM , Lufthansa , Olympic Airways and UTA, among others .

Since January 19, 2009, the Airbus A380 has also been used on this route , including by Qantas .

Today the “ Kangaroo Route ” is used by over 25 airlines, including Qantas, Air New Zealand, British Airways, Cathay Pacific , China Eastern , Korean Air , Qatar Airways , Singapore Airlines and Thai Airways .

Since March 25, 2018, there has been a non-stop connection between Europe and Australia for the first time. The route from London to Perth is operated by Qantas . The Boeing 787-9 is used for the route . The Dreamliner covers 14,498 km in around 17 hours . This makes the connection by far the longest scheduled passenger flight in the world. In terms of the distance of the flight, however, it only ranks second behind the Air India flight from New Delhi to San Francisco .

General

The name " Kangaroo Route " is used to this day because at least one stopover is usually necessary for this route (similar to the hop of a kangaroo) and kangaroos only occur in the wild in Australasia. A kangaroo in its logo still reminds of its origin and the historical significance of this route for the Qantas airline .

The stopovers usually take place in Asia, today in Singapore , Hong Kong , Bangkok , Taipei , Shanghai or Beijing . In the meantime, however, the airlines Etihad , Emirates and Qatar Airways also operate this route, with stopovers at their hubs in Abu Dhabi , Dubai and Doha .

Since large parts of the population in Australia and New Zealand are of European descent, the operation of the " Kangaroo route " is responsible for a large part of the profit for airlines based there.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ History of the Qantas airline (English) ( Memento from December 10, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
  2. ^ A b c Flight International, Thirty Years of Qantas, November 16, 1950, p. 437
  3. ^ Flight International, August 2, 1945, p. 129
  4. ↑ Article "60 Years of the Kangaroo Route" (English)
  5. ↑ Use of the Airbus A380 on the Kangaroo route (English)
  6. ↑ Press release about the Kangaroo Route from Qantas (English)
  7. ↑ Non-stop connection from London to Perth starts on March 25, 2018, accessed on March 17, 2018
  8. ↑ Longest Air India flight in the world , accessed March 17, 2018.