- Since its inaugural flight to Hong Kong in 1949, the Australian carrier has served as the key connector between the Asian city and Australia
- While Qantas passengers enjoy the state-of-the-art Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners in service now, there will be more refurbished Airbus A380s by 2020
[Sponsored Article]
The past
Qantas premiered its charter service from Sydney to Hong Kong in March 1949 – three months before it launched its regular fortnightly service.
That inaugural journey, made in a four-engine, propeller-driven Douglas DC-4 Skymaster, took around 20 hours, with stops in Darwin, in Australia’s Northern Territory, and the island of Labuan, then part of Borneo, before landing at Hong Kong’s Kai Tak International Airport in Kowloon.
Memories of the infamous Kai Tak, which closed more than 20 years ago, and the navigation challenges it posed remain firmly fixed in the minds of Qantas pilots and passengers. The airport was situated beside the city’s residential buildings with mountains firmly to the north, and a runway alongside Victoria Harbour.
People [on flights] would clap because the landing at [at Kai Tak] was so tight