Qantas is marking 60 years of jets flying to New Zealand.
On April 10 1965, the Australian airline’s Boeing 707-138 left Sydney and touched down in Christchurch.
The 707 was Boeing’s first jetliner and it made 13 of the aircraft for Qantas.
Qantas said its 707 was the first-ever jet engine commercial aircraft to cross the Tasman.
“The inaugural service was commanded by chief pilot Captain ‘Torchy’ Uren and on board were four New Zealand-born cabin crew members, along with Qantas founder Sir Hudson Fysh and his wife Lady Fysh.”
The 707s, new at the time, offered 20 seats in a first-class cabin and 84 seats in economy.
The airline said it was releasing previously unpublished historical content from its archives.
“The first Qantas services operated on Lockheed L-188 Electra turboprops and the inaugural service in October 1961 flew from Sydney to Wellington and was seen off by Qantas co-founder Hudson Fysh and the New Zealand Prime Minister at the time.”
The PM then was Keith Holyoake.
After the 707 flight from Sydney to Christchurch, Qantas jets flew from Sydney to Wellington and Auckland.
In November 1965, Qantas operated its first jet service to Auckland Airport with a Boeing 707 V-Jet. The airline had taken delivery of its first 707 six years earlier.
Auckland Airport had not yet officially opened and Qantas said its aircraft was the first commercial plane to land there.
The first aircraft to leave from Auckland Airport was believed to be an Air New Zealand DC-8 bound for Sydney.
Air New Zealand had only been renamed in April that year. It was previously known as Teal – Tasman Empire Airways Limited.
In January 1966, a “Grand Air Pageant” marked the Auckland Airport opening, lasting three days and attracting an estimated 200,000 or more people.
For several years, all travellers used what is now the domestic terminal at Auckland, until an international terminal opened in 1977.
Qantas became the only all-Boeing 747 airline in the world in 1981.
That year, it took delivery of the 747SP, a shortened version of the Jumbo jet, especially to operate into the shorter runway at Wellington Airport.
Later that decade, Qantas started flying the wide-body Boeing 767-238 across the Tasman.
Qantas last month started work on its new international lounge at Auckland Airport and closed the existing lounge space for the upgrade.
Qantas Group, including Jetstar, said it now operated more than over 350 flights a week within and from New Zealand.
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