Order first aircraft
McGinness and McMaster –a wealthy grazier — become friends when McGinness fixes McMaster’ car when it breaks an axle in a riverbed. Back in Brisbane, McGinness and Fysh tell McMaster about their plans for an air service, beginning with joy rides and air taxi trips. McMaster convinces business acquaintances to invest with them. With their former flight sergeant Arthur Baird as aircraft mechanic, Fysh and McGinness order two Avro 504K aircraft at Mascot Aerodrome, Sydney in the name of The Western Queensland Auto Aero Service Limited.
Founding
Papers formally establishing Qantas (Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services Limited) are signed in the Gresham Hotel, Brisbane. The company, based in Winton, is registered with McMaster as Chairman.
Reduces flights to Perth
Qantas reduces flights to Perth. It removes one Airbus A330 flight per day from Melbourne to Perth. A return flight from Perth to Melbourne is discontinued. Most of the flights from Sydney to Perth will now use smaller Boeing 737 instead of the present Airbus A330.
These small changes to our east-west flying allow us to add wide body domestic services between Sydney and Brisbane and form part of our twice yearly schedule update. We are able to move our aircraft around to match market conditions and demand.