From the CEO
Athol Townley might not be a household name these days but 60 years ago this month he made one of the biggest announcements in Qantas’s history.
Back when Qantas was owned by the Australian government, Townley was the aviation minister who signed the order for the Boeing 707, Qantas’s first passenger jet.
Today, we have some pretty robust discussions about what aircraft to order at Qantas but the debate about the 707 in 1956 was especially intense. That’s because it wasn’t just a big decision for Qantas; it had a huge impact on the aviation industry generally.
Hudson Fysh, Qantas’s chairman at the time, pushed for the 707 rather than the arguably less advanced British jets (which Australia, as part of the Commonwealth, was under pressure to buy). He knew the 707 would completely change what was possible for air travel.
In 1959, Qantas was the first airline outside the United States to take delivery of the 707. It enabled us to operate the first commercial jet flights across the Pacific, speed up the Kangaroo Route to London, offer more seats and sell cheaper tickets than ever before.
These days, many new technologies get called game changers; the 707 really was.
The 707 was also the start of the great relationship between Qantas and Boeing, which is still going strong today. We’re not always the first airline to order a new aircraft type but we’re among a handful of carriers that Boeing consults when planning the next generation.
With the Boeing 747 jumbo, for example, Boeing helped us to create the first-ever Business Class cabin. (We’ve also taken that approach with Airbus, which collaborated with our team and Marc Newson to design our A380s and A330s around our customers’ needs.)
The next addition to the Qantas fleet is the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, which we’ll start flying towards the end of next year. It’s a sensational aircraft that will transform the routes we can operate and the level of passenger comfort – like the 707, 747 and Airbus A380 before it.
There’s a lot happening at Qantas to lay the groundwork for the Dreamliner. Crew training is starting, we’re looking at what routes to put it on first – there’s interesting speculation out there – and you’ll start hearing about what the cabin will look like.
It’s an exciting time and, as always, we’ll be working closely with Boeing to make sure these aircraft have the signature Qantas features that make them stand out from the rest. Watch this space...