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This article was published in 2019 in a series on the history of British Airways and its predecessors Imperial Airways, BOAC and BEA. You can browse all 100 stories in number order, by theme or by decade.
Many have been updated since first published.
If there’s one region of the world that illustrates both the progress of aviation in the past 100 years and the changing dynamics and balance of power, it’s Australia.
The Kangaroo Route
Imperial Airways and Qantas Airways first began to co-operate on UK – Australia services in 1934.
On 8 December 1934, the first UK to Australia mail service began operated by Imperial Airways (from Croydon to Karachi), Indian Trans-Continental (Karachi to Singapore) and Qantas Empire Airways (Singapore to Brisbane).
The event was marked by a special ceremony at Croydon presided over by Lord Londonderry, Secretary of State for Air. Included in the two tons of letters were three addressed by the King, the Queen, and the Prince of Wales to the Duke of Gloucester at Auckland.
The next year, on 13 April 1935, the first passenger service operated from London to Brisbane by Imperial Airways and Qantas Empire Airways. It initially operated weekly and the trip took 12 and a half days. It would become officially known as the Kangaroo Route.
The Flying Boats
By 1939, services to Australia were operated with flying boats.
Passengers would depart from the Imperial Airways Terminal in Victoria to catch a train to Southampton.
Imperial Airways’ had a fleet of 28 flying boats. Weighing 18 tonnes, these could accommodate up to 24 passengers and 5 crew. These were dubbed “veritable flying hotels” promising restaurant meals in spacious saloons with a promenade deck and separate smoking cabin.
Passengers would sit in “the most luxurious chair in the world” which could move from an upright to reclined position at the touch of a lever.
BOAC Post Second World War
BOAC services to Australia were terminated during the Second World War.
After the war time restrictions on flying were lifted, BOAC and Qantas began a flying boat service from Southampton to Australia, with the trip taking 5 and a half days. The flying boats were withdrawn from BOAC in 1949.
In 1947, Qantas began flying to London in its own right with the Lockheed Constellation aircraft.
In March 1957, BOAC introduced Bristol Britannia aircraft which cut the journey time by 30 hours.
Joint BOAC/Qantas De Havilland Comet 4 services to Sydney would follow in 1959. It was in this year that BOAC and Qantas celebrated 25 years of partnership on this route.
The Jet Age: London To Sydney In 33 Hours
The biggest advances came in the 1960s with the arrival of the VC10 and Boeing 707 aircraft.
Qantas began operating Boeing 707 jets from London via San Francisco in 1959.
In 1967, BOAC introduced its own Pacific route to Australia via New York, San Francisco, Honolulu, and Fiji. The trip took 33 hours.
The inaugural flight was filmed, and a video and transcript is below:
Now in great ships of the sky, British captains and their crews wing their way half around the world to Australia in 33 hours, almost 13,000 miles.
The days of salt pork and biscuits are in the past. Now it’s luxury. On board BOAC’s inaugural Pacific service flight to Sydney caviar is the only reminder of sea 40,000 feet below. Take off time in London was noon. Now they’re just finishing after lunch coffee high in the Manhattan skyline.
New York they say takes your breath away and loosens your purse strings. No time for shopping though this time. For soon, it’s onward again, to race the sun across the United States to San Francisco. Not sail now, but four Rolls Royce engines, thrusting the first flight by a British airline along the South Trans Pacific route.
San Francisco, city by the Pacific. City of cable cars, hills and links with the past. America’s doorway to the orient, the Golden Gate Bridge. By local time, it’s only seven hours since leaving London. But this is 6,000 miles from home with a tangy Pacific Air and Frisco’s famous seafood.
New York’s far behind. Soon this place will be too, because ahead and waiting is the magic of Honolulu. From San Francisco onward again. Calling Honolulu. Calling Honolulu. And what a pleasant answer. Now the crew of modern clipper changeover, They can enjoy a well earned rest. People like them helped BOAC to announce an all time record profit of £23 million. Air fares are coming down, making it possible for more and more people to come to places as far away as this.
It’s hard to leave a place like Honolulu. When the next stop’s Fiji, it makes it easier.
This take off’s different flying straight into tomorrow across the dateline. Every one of the 152 passengers get a momento of the occasion.
Communications Fiji style. This is how the message of the flight gets around the island. The nonstop before the continent of Australia. It’s been an easy journey by the standards of today, almost half way around the world in hours. Back in the days of the clipper ships, they’d still be finding an angry ocean, only a fraction of the way out from home port. Yet today, there is a man, Sir Francis Chichester battling through these same elements coming home on his great adventure.
In air travel, a new chapter is born by a British airline. 33 hours from London to Sydney. Yes, the world is truly becoming a smaller place. A good thing for all nations. [End]
The Boeing 747
In 1971, BOAC introduced the first Boeing 747 services to Australia.
Qantas introduced Boeing 747 services in the same year. Here is a film of the inaugural Boeing 747 flight on BOAC, with a transcript, and featuring Harry Secombe no less:
A Boeing 747 waits London airport ready for takeoff on BOAC’s inaugural jumbo jet flight to Sydney. Movietone’s lucky camera team joining a flight for yet another assignment in the sun. Other travellers include one of Britain’s funniest men, Harry Secombe. He appears have something on his mind. I don’t blame him. And now the four powerful jet engines lift the monster in its element.
By now, it’s lunchtime and 360 hungry passengers are served a four course meal which would you delight any gourmet.
Cruising at about 550 miles an hour, the jumbo consumes a gallon of petrol every second, but it flies seemingly without any effort at all.
Stewardess Josephine Wuan with one of her youngest passengers. Needless to say Mr Seacombe was doing all right too [In the Upper Deck lounge].
A view of Sydney’s Harbour Bridge means that it’s nearly the end of this inaugural jumbo jet flight. But for us there’s the chance to take in the Sydney sights. There’s controversial Opera House. Believe it or not, it’s still being built.
In Sydney harbour of course, there’s plenty of room for sailing. But leaving Sydney, let’s make for the Outback. Two and a half million people, and just over 174 million sheep. But you can tell the sheep they all have coats like this. This frustrated gags just been trying to get rid of that thing [a boomerang] for quite some time. Trouble is, it always seems to come back.
And how about this Sheila, sport? And how about this sport, sport? It’s things like this make you want to migrate with the birds. [End]
“All 747 Service For Australia”
By 1976, BA operated all Boeing 747 services to four cities in Australia: Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney.
However, these still required multiple stops before reaching Australia. Only Perth required just two stops. Melbourne and Sydney required at least three stops en route.
The introduction of longer range Boeing 747-236 aircraft on routes to Australia in the late 1970 enabled BA to reduce the number of stops en route via South East Asia to Australia.
Sydney was cut to two stops from London Heathrow. Melbourne gained a two stop service three times a week. Perth benefited from a one-stop service three times a week. Brisbane required three stops en route three times a week.
In 1984, thanks to improvements to Boeing 747 engines there were further journey time improvements to Australia.
Concorde Visits Australia
Plans for Concorde to operate scheduled services to Australia never came to fruition.
A number of charter services did operate. In February 1985, Concorde flew from London to Sydney in 17 hours, 3 hours and 45 seconds for Cunard.
The aircraft landed in Sydney on 14 February 1985 having stopped in Bahrain, Colombo and Perth for refuelling.
The day before, BA took out a full page advert in The Times with the message “DARLING SYDNEY Will be breaking all records to be with you on the 14th Love Concorde XX.”
“No British Airways ownership of our Qantas. Piss off poms.”
In the 1990s BA continued to develop a very close working relationship with Qantas.
BA beat Singapore Airlines to acquire a 25% stake in the airline in 1993 ahead of its full privatisation in 1997.
Although not everyone was enamoured with the idea. One Australian put up a poster “No British Airways ownership of our Qantas. Piss off poms.” at Sydney airport.
BA and Qantas also formed a joint-business in 1995 to co-operate on Europe – Australia services. This involved deep levels of co-operation including co-ordination of fares, schedules and routes with joint-sales teams and many joint airport lounges throughout Asia. BA and Qantas would also share aircraft, with BA leasing 7 Boeing 767 aircraft to Qantas.
In 1999, BA operated 28 Boeing 747 services to Australia a week. Qantas remained the dominant international airline of Australia with around a 40% share of international traffic.
BA’s “Future Size And Shape”
Following the turn of the century BA started to withdraw its presence.
With a focus on reducing complexity in its operations, BA started cutting services. To reduce the amount of debt on its balance sheet BA also sold its stake in Qantas. Services to Perth were suspended. Melbourne was suspended for a second time in 2006, partly to release Boeing 747 aircraft for expanded services to India.
BA and Qantas explored a merger in 2008, at the same time as BA was in talks with Iberia. The deal was pulled after BA and Qantas could not agree on the relative shares in the combined business. Given the practical difficulties of distance and time zones between the UK and Australia, it is hard to see how the merger could have achieved the same synergies as BA has done with Iberia under IAG.
Qantas Calls Dubai Home
At the same time, the competitive dynamics changed considerably with the rise of Middle Eastern airlines.
The UK-Australia market has always been highly competitive with Singapore Airlines and Cathay Pacific acting as formidable competitors. However, Emirates in particular has had a dramatic impact on the market. Aided by the Airbus A380 it opened up countless one-stop connections between Africa, Europe and Australia that BA and Qantas simply cannot offer.
With Qantas facing a dramatic loss in market share, it adopted a “If you can’t beat them..” approach and tore-up its joint-business with BA in favour of a new deal with Emirates in 2013. Four daily Qantas services from London Heathrow to Australia via Asia were cut to two, all via Dubai.
Whilst there were doubts as to whether BA would withdraw from Australia altogether, it has maintained a daily Boeing 777-300 service to Sydney via Singapore.
Qantas launched a daily non-stop service to Perth in 2018 and is now actively looking to launch non-stop services to Melbourne and Sydney.
Whilst BA has expressed no interest in non-stop services to Australia, IAG has indicated BA may return to Melbourne. Whatever advances in aircraft technology may come it is unlikely that BA will ever regain its presence in Australia.
You can continue reading our 100 part series on the history of British Airways and its predecessor airlines Imperial Airways, BOAC and BEA in numerical order, by theme or by decade.
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