Southern Cross Route

Southern Cross Route is a term for passenger flights from Australasia to Europe via the Western Hemisphere. The Kangaroo route is its counterpart running through the Eastern Hemisphere, with many more flights. Both terms were invented by airlines when they started flying the two routes (Qantas on the Kangaroo Route, British Commonwealth Pacific Airlines on the Southern Cross), so they have no "official" definitions; probably no airline has ever described a route from Europe to Australasia via South America as "the Southern Cross Route". (And BCPA/Qantas called it the "Southern Cross Route" when it only extended from Australia to Vancouver, before 1958.)

The February 1959 OAG shows three Qantas 1049Gs a week flying Melbourne to Heathrow via San Francisco in 65 hours total. No other airline had direct flights Europe to Australasia via North America until BOAC in 1967. 3 airlines offer through flights (i.e. not requiring passengers to change plane en route) on the Southern Cross Route: Air New Zealand, Air Tahiti Nui and Air France.

Air New Zealand operated the Auckland-Los Angeles-London Heathrow route and an Auckland-Hong Kong-London Heathrow route, making it the only airline flying both the Southern Cross Route and the Kangaroo Route. Before Air New Zealand cancelled their Hong Kong–London flight in March 2013 in favour of a codeshare with Cathay Pacific it was the only airline still operating round-the-world service. Air Tahiti Nui and Air France both operate a Tahiti-Los Angeles-Paris CDG route.

Several other airlines (e.g. United Airlines and Delta Air Lines) have route networks extending across the Pacific and Atlantic, but none of them currently offer through flights Europe to Australasia. Air Canada flies to Sydney from Vancouver using the airline's new Boeing 777 aircraft. Connecting flights are available on Air Canada to London Heathrow Airport, and with Star Alliance partner Lufthansa to Frankfurt.

LAN Airlines operates service from Europe via Santiago to a host of South Pacific destinations, including Sydney and Auckland. Aerolíneas Argentinas also operates services via Buenos Aires.

In the past, additional service was offered along this route. Air Tahiti Nui briefly operated a Tahiti-New York JFK-Paris CDG route, but it was quickly discontinued. Qantas once operated flights on this route along with the Kangaroo route, but it dropped the transatlantic flight in the 1970s.

Operations

Aside from codeshares and alliances/partners, the airlines operating the Southern Cross Route are listed below:

References