Return of the other flying roo (Pic)

[Wirraway]

Mon "Sydney Morning Herald"

Return of the other flying roo
By Stephen Dabkowski
September 16 2002

Qantas Airways is expected to have its new international airline operating out of Melbourne and Sydney within 18 months.

Australian Airlines, the new international leisure airline launched yesterday by Qantas, will begin its operations on October 27, initially out of Cairns, but plans to initiate services from both Melbourne and Sydney perhaps as early as next year.

At 1pm yesterday Qantas created history by becoming the first major international airline to start up new operations since the global aviation shakeout which followed the September 11 terrorist attacks last year.

The arrival into Sydney Airport of a freshly painted Boeing 767, featuring a distinctive ochre reminiscent of Australia's red centre, signalled the official revival of the Australian Airlines name. This time Australian Airlines is an international rather than domestic carrier.

Australian will operate as a leisure carrier initially servicing six Asian cities: Nagoya, Fukuoka, Osaka, Hong Kong, Singapore and Taipei.

The only hiccup at the launch was an electrical fault which delayed the arrival of the inaugural Australian Airlines aircraft by almost two hours. But the chief executive of Australian Airlines, Denis Adams, was upbeat about the airline's prospects.

"Australian Airlines is nothing but good news for Australia and for Australian tourism and we are all enormously excited at the opportunity this airline presents," Mr Adams said.

Australian would bring in "tens of thousands" of new tourists a year to Australia, he said.

"We'll offer them a standard of service which will be the envy of airlines everywhere else."

Mr Adams updated the airline's commercial status, saying that it had more than 60 per cent load factor until next April, and the first month of its operation was nearly booked out.

He said early demand had encouraged the airline to stick to its plan to move from operating four aircraft initially to 12 aircraft within the first two years of operation.

This would allow Australian Airlines to move from just being an inbound travel operator to Australia to also allow flights out of places like Melbourne to destinations like Phuket, Honolulu, Bali, Bangkok, Greece, Turkey and possibly China.

Mr Adams said bookings were strongest so far from Japanese tourists wanting to come to Australia.

"The thing working in our favour in Japan is the turn-off in tourism to the United States," he said.

"Australia is seen as a safe haven and that is working in our favour."

Apart from the distinctive ochre colour, the airline's exterior also features a kangaroo, maintaining an association with the original Australian Airlines.

"The universal icon of the kangaroo and the colour of Australia's red centre are identified with Australia both here and around the world," Mr Adams said.
========================================

Thanks Craig Murray for allowing your great photo's to
be posted on D&G, also to the rwy 34 site for hosting them.

Wirraway


Photo © Craig Murray

More of Craig's photos of Australian Airlines here:

http://www.rwy34.com/craig/ogj_2_15sept02.jpg

http://www.rwy34.com/craig/ogj_3_15sept02.jpg

http://www.rwy34.com/craig/ogj_4_15sept02.jpg

http://www.rwy34.com/craig/ogj_5_15sept02.jpg

http://www.rwy34.com/craig/ogj_6_15sept02.jpg

http://www.rwy34.com/craig/andrea_staines_crew.jpg

http://www.rwy34.com/craig/ceo_denis...tattendant.jpg

http://www.rwy34.com/craig/denis_adams_ceo.jpg

http://www.rwy34.com/craig/pilot_flightattendant.jpg

(images must not be linked from here without permission).

My sincere thanks must go to Mr. Dave Faulkner for the web hosting, Skip Fulton for the initial heads up, Australian Airlines for their hospitality and Sydney Airports Corp for allowing us out onto the airport.

Regards,
Craig Murray

[email protected]

[Buckshot]

Fantastic livery - one of the best going round.
Thanks for the photos, Craig.

Shame on Channel 9 for its report on the launch yesterday. No information about Australian itself, just moaning that they had to wait 2 hours due to the technical hitch. Of course, they added 'that it comes in a week of red faces for Qantas after the grounding of its 737-800 fleet'. You journos are just soooooo boring.....

[topend3]

the colour scheme looks fabulous!!!!

[375ml]

Buckshot, couldn't have been as bad as Channel 10 late night news... the commercial break overran the intro then about half way into the story which referred to a "3 hour delay ... at Brisbane Airport". Great looking plane anyway, hope to see more domestic sectors after Australian's launch.

[Bugsmasha]

Also channel 10 newsreader said he witnessed the arrival of Australian Airlines freshly painted 737

[Keg]

Got to say that I'm not real impressed with the pilots uniform though. Blue shirts look seriously strange!!

This one has the boss (Captain Peter Quinn) and one of the F/As. Don't mind the F/As get up but 'geez' for the techies! C'mon Pete, at least go with my suggestion of leather jackets for the cold Japanese weather!!

[RamAirTurbine]

What next? A Star Trek uniform for the Pilots?

Say arent wings meant to resemble wings? Not rectangles?






Beam me up Scotty.

[Bugsmasha]

EEK !

[cabin secure]

Check out Australian Airlines updated site.
Looks like the Techies are getting a black bomber jacket. No reference as to leather or not though.
Thumbs up to the FA uniform. Tried it on, very comfortable and practical.

[smile]

I quite like the uniform. Although I think that the bomber jackets may be a little too casual the rest is quite nice. I think that the colours represent the airline well and that they also look very comfortable to work in!!

Would love to see the jackets (I'm guessing they are jackets) they have in their arms put on. But I guess we will see that soon enough.

I only hope that the interior decore of the aircraft doesn't clash with the earthy colours!!!

All in all is there any cabin crew member who can say that they are 100% happy with the uniform thier company issues.

Love SMILE

[Woomera]

Looks absolutely fantastic and a credit to QF, the designers and Oz.

Good to see that name up there again with a very visible, easily recognised and appropriate icon of our country.

Good luck with the new venture from ALL of us at PPRuNe and I'm sure that is shared by VB people as well.

Anything that stimulates the market further is good news for everyone.

[topend3]

well, looks like they are going the virgin blue way with no ties and the black leather jacket...

[downtheback]

Thanks Woomera

Thanks Woomera for your best wishes.

Talking to other crew we are all pretty happy with the uniform choice. It was cetainly very comfortable when we had our fittings.

We are all looking forward to getting into the air