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Qantas, is Australia's oldest and biggest airline. The company was founded on 16 November 1920 as "Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services Limited" -- QANTAS, but soon became known simply as Qantas, and adopted that name offcially, and the usage of QANTAS has been superseded.

Since the merger with Australian Airlines in 1995, it has flown an extensive schedule between all Australian capital cities, as well as many regional cities and towns. It also flies many international routes to and from Australia. The airline was government owned until the 1990s, but was successfully privatised, with British Airways owning a significant stake.

Qantas has a reputation for being an aggressive competitor in the Australian aviation market. Over the years, several domestic Australian airlines have gone out of business amid complaints of anti-competitive pricing by Qantas and exorbitant prices on the newly non-competitive routes. After September 2001, and the collapse of Ansett Airlines, Qantas held a near monopoly on the Australian domestic air travel market. Virgin Blue, a cut-price competitor, has eaten into this market share somewhat, but Qantas remains the superdominant player in the Australian domestic aviation market and one of the few profitable full-service airlines in the world.

Qantas has attempted to expand into the New Zealand domestic air travel market, first with a shareholding in Air New Zealand, then by a franchise takeover of Ansett New Zealand. As of July 2003, they currently await regulatory approval to purchase a larger (but still minority) stake in Air New Zealand.

As of 2003, Qantas has never had any fatal crashes, though on one occasion an airliner overshot a runway and required such extensive repairs that the aircraft was virtually rebuilt.

Current fleet

• Boeing 747 33
• Airbus A330 2
• Boeing 767 32
• Boeing 737 56
• Boeing 717 14
• BAe 146 17

On order:

• Airbus A380 12
• Boeing 747 3
• Airbus A330 11
• Boeing 737 8
• Boeing 747 3

(As of 2002)