Британ-Австралия әуе жолы: «Кенгуру маршруты» тарихы

Flights between Britain and Australia over the Eastern Hemisphere

The Kangaroo Route is a term coined by Qantas, referring to the commercial passenger air routes flown between Australia and the United Kingdom via the Eastern Hemisphere. The route has been operated since 1934, but found its name in 1944 from the unique mode of travel of the kangaroo, as the route's "hops" were reminiscent of a kangaroo's hops both use to cover long distances. The term is trademarked and traditionally used by Qantas, although it is often used in the media and by airline competitors to describe all Australia to United Kingdom flights. In addition to Qantas, by 2003, over 20 airlines operated routes connecting Australia and the UK, including British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Emirates, Etihad, Malaysia Airlines, Qatar Airways, Singapore Airlines, Thai Airways and Turkish Airlines with most involving a single transfer between flights at their respective hubs. Only British Airways and Qantas offer through direct flights (not requiring passengers to change plane en route), both making a fuel stop at Singapore Changi Airport as of 2024. Qantas commenced operating non stop flights from Perth to London with Boeing 787s on 25 March 2018. This ended the era of the continents of Europe and Oceania not being connected by non stop flights, marking the first time that all of the world's continents, excluding Antarctica, are connected by non stop flights.

Qantas operated the Australian part of the Kangaroo Route for nine years before coining (and later trademarking) the name. After starting airmail operations between Brisbane and Singapore in 1934, Qantas began operating passenger flights connecting Brisbane to Singapore in 1935 following successful awarding of the Australian government's tender. After disruption to the route due to the emerging hostilities of World War II, the connectivity was famously restored by Qantas with its "Double Sunrise" service connectivity between Perth and Ceylon on the Indian Ocean Route with Catalina flying boats in 1943. With the addition of the land based Liberator aircraft to the route in 1944, the "Indian Ocean Route" was officially renamed "The Kangaroo Service" by Qantas' Managing Director Hudson Fysh and pilot Bill Crowther; a play on words of the aviation term "hop" (referring to a leg of a route), and the hop of a kangaroo, an Australian icon. Along with the newly created Qantas logo of the flying kangaroo, the terms "Kangaroo Service" and "Kangaroo Route" were trademarked by Qantas and became the airline's branded term to describe Qantas' Australia United Kingdom connectivity. A significant milestone in 1947 when Qantas began operating the entire Kangaroo Route independently. This April 1947 inauguration is referred to as the birth date of the Kangaroo Route by Qantas, even though it had been operating a part of that route for almost a decade.

In 1935 Qantas started flying passengers to Singapore in a De Havilland 86 to connect with London bound Imperial Airways. London to Brisbane service commenced on 13 April 1935. Imperial Airways and Qantas Empire Airways opened the London to Brisbane route for passengers for a single fare £195 There were no through bookings on the first service because of heavy sector bookings, but there were two through passengers on the next flight that left London on 20 April. The route opened for passengers from Brisbane to London on 17 April; flights were weekly and the journey time was 121/2 days. Eastbound passengers from London would first fly from Croydon to Paris, take an overnight train to Brindisi, and fly onward with stops at Athens, Alexandria (overnight), Gaza, Baghdad (overnight), Basra, Kuwait, Bahrain, Sharjah (overnight), Gwadar, Karachi, Jodhpur (overnight), Delhi, Cawnpore, Allahabad, Calcutta (overnight), Akyab, Rangoon, Bangkok (overnight), Alor Star, Singapore (overnight), Batavia, Sourabaya, Rambang (overnight), Koepang, Darwin (overnight), Longreach (overnight), and Charleville. London Karachi was operated by Imperial Airways, Karachi Singapore jointly by Imperial and Indian Trans Continental Airways, and Singapore Brisbane by Qantas.

On June 11, 1940, Italy entered WWII and the Kangaroo Route connection across the Mediterranean Sea from Egypt was severed with the resulting loss of all access to commercial air routes. While direct passenger air connectivity was lost, previous contingency plans were put into action, utilising the structure of the "Horseshoe Route" that connected Australia and England for passengers and airmail via Durban, South Africa where passengers would connect to steamboat service. This service was swiftly started just 8 days later with the first flight leaving Australia on June 19, 1940 and continuing its operation, modifying as necessary until its final reserve route ("Reserve Route 3") via Broome was lost on February 15, 1942 with the fall of Singapore. Plans for restoration of the connectivity were started in early 1943, resulting in the ideation, equipping, and successful testing of what would become the Double Sunrise service. The designed route was Port Hedland Batavia Christmas Island Cocos Island Diego Garcia The Seychelles Mombasa. The Double Sunrise flights remain the longest (in terms of airtime) commercial flights in history. Initially, passengers and mail were then transferred via ground transport from Galle to Karachi connecting with BOAC service onwards to London. In November 1943, this was replaced by adding an additional hop to the kangaroo route operated by the Qantas Catalinas up the Indian coast to Karangi Creek in Karachi.]] In June 1944, Qantas augmented the Kangaroo Route's Catalina service with an additional route operated by converted Consolidated Liberator bombers. The Liberators flew from Perth to Learmonth before flying a shorter 3,077 mi (4,952 km) over water route to an airfield northeast of Colombo, but they could make the journey in 17 hours with 5,500 pounds (2,500 kg) of payload, whereas the Catalinas usually required at least 27 hours and their payload was limited to only 1,000 pounds (450 kg). This route was named 'The Kangaroo Service' and was the genesis for the Kangaroo Route's naming. It also marked the first time that Qantas's now famous Kangaroo logo was used; passengers received a certificate proclaiming them as members of The Order of the Longest Hop. In June 1945, Avro Lancastrians were introduced on the England–Australia service, and the Liberators and Catalinas were soon shifted to other Qantas routes. The Catalina operated Double Sunrise service ended on 18 July 1945.

On May 30, 1945 following the end of the war in the European Theatre, Lancastrian operated flights by BOAC resumed from Hurn Airport in southern England, connecting in Karachi to Qantas' operated service which flew via Karachi Minneriya (Ceylon) Learmonth to Sydney.

On April 7, 1946 Qantas ended its Indian Ocean Service, and reverted the Kangaroo Route back via Darwin and Singapore. For the first time flying directly from Sydney to Darwin to Singapore, eliminating all previous domestic Australian stops. BOAC and Qantas service combined to operate the Kangaroo Route from Sydney to London time in a new record of 63 hours.

In 1947, Qantas took over complete operation of the route from Australia to The United Kingdom utilizing their new Lockheed Constellations. BOAC would continue to run its own service in parallel. Qantas first flew the Kangaroo Route on 1 December 1947. A Lockheed Constellation carried 29 passengers and 11 crew from Sydney to London with stops in Darwin, Singapore, Calcutta, Karachi, Cairo, and Tripoli (passengers stayed overnight in Singapore and Cairo). A return fare was £585 , equivalent to 130 weeks average pay. In the 1950s and 1960s some Qantas Kangaroo Routes featured other stops, including Frankfurt, Zürich, Rome, Athens, Beirut, Tehran, Bombay, and Colombo. In May 1958 the Kangaroo Route had 11 westward flights a week: four Qantas Super Constellations, four BOAC Britannias, and one Air India Super Constellation from Sydney to London, one KLM Super Constellation Sydney to Amsterdam, and one TAI Douglas DC 6B Auckland to Paris. In February 1959 Qantas' fastest Super Constellation took 63 hr 45 min Sydney to Heathrow and BOAC's Britannia took 49 hr 25 min. Jet flights (Qantas with Boeing 707) started in 1959; in April 1960 the fastest trip from Sydney to London was 34 hr 30 min with eight stops. In the late 1950s, Qantas had a round the world network, flying Australia to Europe westward on the Kangaroo Route and eastward on the Southern Cross Route (via the Pacific Ocean). Qantas dropped its Southern Cross Route and Fiesta Route in 1975. By 1969, Qantas had 11 Kangaroo Route flights a week from Sydney to London, taking 29–32 hours with 5–6 stops each; BOAC's 7 9 weekly flights previously had 7 stops. In 1971 Qantas added Boeing 747s, reducing the travel time and number of stops (in the late 1970s flights typically stopped at Singapore and Bahrain). Fares fell, opening air travel to more people with more competition.

In April 1974 Qantas commenced operating a one stop service from Perth to London with only one stop in Bombay with Boeing 707s. In 1989 Qantas set a world distance record for commercial jets when a Boeing 747 400, the City of Canberra (VH OJA), flew non stop from London to Sydney in just over 20 hours (with special fuel and without passengers or cargo). This was the only nonstop flight ever made between both cities for the next 3 decades. Starting in January 2009, Qantas began utilising its new A380 aircraft on the Kangaroo Route, raising its capacity to 450 passengers per flight. As part of a partnership approved in 2013 with Emirates, Qantas announced that its services to London would stop in Dubai rather than Singapore, beginning that same year. Qantas also announced that its services to Frankfurt via Singapore would be discontinued in April 2013, leaving London as its only European destination. Following years of low demand on the Sydney Dubai route, Qantas announced in 2017 that its flights between Sydney and London would be reverting to a Singapore stop instead of Dubai from 25 March 2018.

Non stop flights from Perth to London commenced in March 2018 with Boeing 787s, with the Kangaroo route becoming a non stop route for the first time, while also connecting Australia and Europe via a non stop route for the first time. These flights operate out of Perth's Terminal 3 rather than the traditional T1 in order to facilitate seamless transfers from Qantas domestic flights. The non stop service forms part of Qantas' secondary Kangaroo route QF9/10, between Melbourne and London via Perth. The route also opens up the possibility of further direct flights to Europe from Perth such as Paris and Frankfurt. In June 2022, Qantas launched a non stop seasonal service from Perth to Rome. In late March 2020, prior to Qantas cutting all international services due to the COVID 19 pandemic, several repatriation flights were operated with a routing of Sydney Darwin London. The Singaporean government had banned transit passengers and airspace in the Middle East was closed, due to the pandemic. This was the first time an Airbus A380 flew nonstop between Australia and Europe. In November 2021, Qantas resumed non stop Kangaroo Route flights, this time from Darwin to London before resuming the non stop route between Perth and London in May 2022 following the reopening of Western Australia for international travel.

The book Beyond the Blue Horizon by travel correspondent Alexander Frater documents the author's attempt to fly all the sectors on the original 1935 Imperial/Qantas London Brisbane route in 1984.