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| Founded | 2002 | |||
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| Operating bases | Brisbane Airport Cairns Airport Sydney Airport Melbourne Airport |
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| Alliance | Oneworld (Affiliate) | |||
| Subsidiaries | Eastern Australia Airlines Sunstate Airlines AirLink (Operated by Cobham Aviation Services Australia) |
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| Fleet size | 56 | |||
| Destinations | 55 | |||
| Headquarters | Sydney, New South Wales, Australia | |||
| Website | www.qantaslink.com.au | |||
QantasLink is a regional brand of Australian airline Qantas and is an affiliate member of the Oneworld airline alliance. It is a major competitor to Regional Express Airlines, Virgin Australia and Skywest Airlines. As of September 2010 QantasLink provides 1900 flights each week to 54 domestic and international locations. [1]
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Prior to 2002, Qantas' various subsidiaries operated under separate brands. In 2002 a common brand was created, encompassing AirLink (a franchise, operated at the time by National Jet), Sunstate Airlines, Eastern Australia Airlines, and Southern Australia Airlines.
For a short while, QantasLink took over some of Qantas' non-trunk routes, such as Sydney - Sunshine Coast, using Boeing 717s that were inherited after Qantas acquired Impulse Airlines. QantasLink ceased operating some of these routes after Qantas formed low-cost subsidiary Jetstar Airways, transferring the Boeing 717 aircraft and routes to the new airline. In 2005/06, eight of the 717s were returned to QantasLink following Jetstar's acquisition of Airbus A320 aircraft, to be operated in Western Australia, Northern Territory and far north Queensland by National Jet (now Cobham Aviation Services Australia).
| Aircraft | Total | Orders | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Boeing 717-200 | 11 | 2[3] | Operated by Cobham Aviation |
| de Havilland Canada DHC-8-200 | 5 | 0 | Operated by Eastern Australia |
| Bombardier Q300 | 15 | 0 | Operated by Eastern Australia |
| Bombardier Q400 | 25 | 3[4] | Operated by Sunstate |
QantasLink flights are operated by the individual airlines that make up the group - Eastern Australia Airlines and Sunstate Airlines; and also contracted carrier Cobham Aviation. All flights use QF IATA codes, and on 5 January 2009 both Eastern and Sunstate changed from their previous individual callsigns to the common Q-Link (pronounced "Cue-Link").
Currently QantasLink has 25 Dash 8 Q400s, with three orders and 17 options. The A$400 million dollar investment will increase capacity on various key routes and was to also allow for the retirement of all DHC-8-100s by the end of 2010; due to rising fuel costs this was accelerated so that all were retired by November 2008. QantasLink pursued this deal despite landing gear problems with Q400 aircraft by some airlines. This problem also saw a grounding of the Q400s by QantasLink, though all were deemed safe and returned to service.
As part of its further expansion, QantasLink entered the South Australian market in December 2005, with flights from Adelaide to Port Lincoln and Kangaroo Island. Interstate flights were also introduced between Kangaroo Island and Melbourne. Due to low passenger loads, these services ceased operation at the end of June 2006, along with the services from Melbourne to Burnie. On 8 December 2009, QantasLink announced that it would re-enter the Adelaide to Port Lincoln market from February 2010, using Q400 aircraft flying 23 return services a week.[5]
Since 2005, QantasLink services in Western Australia, Queensland and the Northern Territory have been contracted to Cobham Aviation (formerly National Jet Systems), using the QantasLink brand. The hubs for QantasLink under the Cobham contract are in Perth, Western Australia, Cairns, Queensland and Darwin, Northern Territory.
Qantas replaced its daily Melbourne-Launceston mainline service with a three times daily QantasLink Dash 8 service from 1 August 2006. This has now been increased to a four times daily service.
In May 2008, QantasLink announced that Tamworth would be the first New South Wales regional port to be serviced by the Dash 8 Q400, commencing in mid-August 2008.[6]
On 29 March 2010 QantasLink and the Qantas Group announced that it would start the first international QantasLink route, from Cairns to Port Moresby, utilising Q400 aircraft already based in Cairns. The service commenced in July 2010. A QantasLink spokesperson stated that "the airline would not turn into a fully fledged international airline, but could operate international routes in the future".[7] QantasLink will add Geraldton to its network from 21 November served from Perth using Q400 aircraft.[8]
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