Travolta to continue links to Qantas - People - www.theage.com.au

This article quotes him describing his qualifications as well as the time he puts into flying to keep up those qualifications.

No idea if he'll pilot for Oprah's audience.

Hmmm... an article dated 2004!

When he first struck the deal there was some chatter about the possibility of him doing a line flight or two. I don't know whether it was even feesible due to his licensing and regulatory issues but it never occurred. In the early days he was coming out annually to stay current in the sim.

By all accounts JT is quite up front about his role as an ambassador and the differences between what he does and what QF drivers do day in, day out.

Just one BIG wank! IMHO!

Dr :8

He most definitely does not line fly.

I have 3 circuits in Qantas 744 sim. Where is my rating?

Thats picking out the pieces of info you WANT to see, not the whole story...must work for the media eh

the whole thing is a wank job..... and their fearless leader oprah is leading the charge....go get em tiger...Exactly how does aus. think this will booost their tourism ? I mean, who the hell cares ?

I'm not so sure. I was sitting in the back on my way to LA when the first officer came over the PA, strong American accent. I'm sure he said he said his name was John - and they piped the BeeGees as we were about to land. Not only that but a blond bird with the initials ONJ was serving the drinks.

JT did the full type course. Full QF Ground course of 2-3 weeks and then the nine full flight sims requires for the endorsement. I don't know if they gave him circuits in the aeroplane at Avalon to finish it.

I've got to say that I'm quite amazed at the response this is getting now in PPRUNE world. This is not a new thing. I remember discussing this during my type conversion onto the 744 back in 2006 and JT had done his training a few years prior to that! I'm not sure if it's the tall poppy thing or just ignorance but some of the comments here on PPRUNE just defy logic.

I imagine the image of him on Oprah stepping off the Q mock-up in full regalia and saluting Oprah's now hysterical audience might have something to do with it! :)

Keg is right.
It is a huge PR deal they've landed.Oprah is a big big deal over there.
Who gives a toss whether JT flies the damn thing?I dont care if he jumps in and just taxis it to the terminal with the cameras rolling.It makes the news, it sells Australia as a tourism destination.
If it gets backsides on seats from the USA , that is great thing for all of our jobs that depend on just that.
He will get more airtime than anyone else here who is whinging about it.

I say good on him. He gets to play with all the toys without the reponsibility.


How much fun would a 744 type rating be without the pressure of passing and career loss.

How much is this costing the Aussie taxpayer ?

A lot less than it'll benefit the Aussie taxpayer in terms of the influx of tourism dollars into the Australian economy.

Yeah well said mate. If only the taxpayers dollars were spent this well everytime we would be laughing!:O

One of the reports I read was 3 million. One of the other reports suggest that we (Australia, QF) have had gotten that much and more out of the deal thus far in free 'advertising'.

Money well spent.

Oprah saying the word "Australia" on her show has got to be worth 3 mil alone. "Oprah Australia" is currently the third drop down option after typing "Oprah" into google.

The old tall poppy syndrome, leave him alone so what if he does not fly for qantas,he's got the loot let him be.