Qantas returns to San Francisco - Flying ace Qantas ambassador John Travolta and Mayor Gavin Newsom on-hand to receive passengers

Wunala Dreaming
A Qantas Boeing 747-400, adorned in aboriginal motifs, arrives at SFO airport yesterday.
Photo(s) by Luke Thomas

March 30, 2006

SAN FRANCISCO - Qantas Ambassador John Travolta and Mayor of San Francisco Gavin Newsom were on-hand to welcome the first of Qantas' B747-400 non-stop flights from Sydney, Australia, to San Francisco, which arrived in San Francisco yesterday.

Mayor Gavin Newsom, Actor/Pilot/Qantas Ambassador John Travolta,
and Qantas Chief Financial Offer Peter Gregg.

Mr. Travolta said that as an American he was pleased Qantas had introduced services to San Francisco.

"San Francisco is a great city and I'm sure it will prove a popular destination for visitors from Australia. On a personal note, I'm also glad Qantas is flying to San Francisco as I formed a great attachment to the city over the years," Mr. Travolta said.

Qantas Chief Financial Offer Peter Gregg said Qantas has had a very strong response to the new services.

"We are initially operating three flights a week, and have plans to develop the route further over time," he said.

Qantas Chief Financial Offer Peter Gregg

"These new services take the total number of Qantas flights to the U.S. to 43 a week, which underscores our commitment to serving this very important market."

Mr. Gregg said that as well as being an important international destination in its own right, San Francisco was an attractive stop-over alternative for Australians travelling to other destinations in the U.S.

"San Francisco is recognized as one of the most popular leisure destinations in the U.S., but is also an important business market," he said.

Mr. Gregg said that San Francisco was also an historically important destination for Qantas.

"San Francisco was the first mainland U.S. destination ever served by Qantas. We operated flights to San Francisco from 1954 to 1994, and also based our American headquarters in San Francisco before moving to Los Angeles in 1995," he said.

'The timing of our new Sydney-San Francisco flights allows excellent connections to other major U.S. cities including Dallas, Chicago, Miami and Houston, which are all served by Qantas' oneworld partner, American Airlines."

Mr. Gregg said Qantas' new services to Vancouver, which were being offered during peak travel seasons from June 2006, would fly via San Francisco.

"This will take the total number of North American destinations services by Qantas to five - Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, Vancouver and Honolulu."

David Chiu on-hand to protect San Francisco from 12 galaxy exta-terrestrial invasion.

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