A Qantas publicity photo taken at Archerfield Airport in Brisbane in 1936 showing a DH86 with a Hudson Terraplane taxi. On April 17, 1935, Qantas operated Australia’s first international passenger flight from Brisbane to Singapore, carrying two customers on a DH86 aircraft. The flight took3.5 days with 16 stops along the way.

In 1937, the new Kallang airport opened in Singapore. It featured a modern art deco style terminal seen here behind a Qantas DH86 aircraft.

Publicity montage image showing a Qantas DH86 airliner over Java enroute to Singapore.

Qantas began flying from Sydney to Singapore in 1938 with six Empire flying boats with names beginning with ‘C’. Passengers enjoyed full cabin service with hot meals.

A dramatic image of a Qantas Douglas DC-4 Skymaster getting airborne from Kai Tak Airport, Hong Kong shortly after Qantas began flying there in 1949.

An aerial view of Qantas Boeing 747-338 ‘City of Geelong’, the last 707 delivered to Qantas in 1968. Its first revenue flight was a charter bringing migrants to Sydney from the UK and Athens.

In 1945, Qantas began flying Indian Ocean services with converted Lancaster bombers known as Lancastrians that operated as far as Karachi from Sydney. They were fitted with six bunks for passengers.jpg

Qantas flew the legendary Douglas DC-3 on postwar domestic and international services including New Guinea.

Qantas Liberators were converted bombers that began flying across the Indian Ocean to Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) and India in 1944. They were the first Qantas aircraft to carry the flying kangaroo emblem.

Australia entered the age of jet travel when Qantas began flying the Boeing 707-138 in 1959, halving travel times.

During the late 1940s and into the 1950s, Qantas had a service desk at the famous Raffles Hotel in Singapore where many transiting passengers stayed while flying on the Kangaroo Route.

The arrival of the first Qantas L1049 Super Constellations in 1954 enabled Qantas to offer around-the-world flights in 1958 and introduced tourist class travel.

The arrival of the first Qantas Boeing 747B in 1971 led to huge changes as airfares dropped, capacity surged and the age of mass air travel began. Between 1979 and 1985, Qantas had an all-747 fleet.

Although Qantas acquired two Boeing 747SP aircraft in 1981 to fly into Wellington, New Zealand its long range enabled the first non-stop Qantas trans-Pacific services between Sydney and Los Angeles in 1984.

Qantas B747-338 Rego VH-EBT.

Qantas operated the Boeing 767 on both domestic and international flights.

Passengers on board Qantas’ Empire Flying Boats back in 1938.

Qantas operated 10-passenger DH86 aircraft to and from Singapore where passengers connected with Imperial Airways flights to India, the Middle East and Europe.

This ticket was issued to Qantas chairman and co-founder Fergus McMaster for travel from Singapore to Brisbane in June 1935.

A 1940 map showing the longest air route in the world between the UK, Australia and New Zealand operated jointly by BOAC, Qantas and TEAL.

Qantas inaugural Sydney-London service via USA Boeing 707-138 VH-EBA, Sydney September 1959.

The first Qantas Trans-Pacific service from Sydney to San Francisco and Vancouver via Fiji and Hawaii using Super Constellation aircraft took off on May 15, 1954.