Flying Down Under Airlines of Australia and New Zealand

November 2014–April 2015

Flying Down Under Airlines of Australia and New Zealand

South of the Equator, isolated by vast deserts, towering mountains, and the immense expanses of the South Pacific and Indian Oceans, the towns and cities of Oceania remained disconnected from each other and the rest of the world by time and geography until the late nineteenth century. Until then, the only viable means of travel and trade was by sea in slow-moving ships. Long-distance rail lines had been developed in New Zealand, but in Australia, they had remained primarily regional. For both nations, the most practical solution to this seclusion ultimately proved to be the development and introduction of commercial air services beginning in the 1920s and 30s.

Like the United States, Australia considered their commercial air services to be of national importance. Efforts were initially devoted to air mail delivery, with passenger services following several years later. By 1935, Britain’s Imperial Airways and QANTAS Empire Airways (Queensland & Northern Territory Aerial Service Limited), collaborated in operating an air route to Asia and Europe. During the same decade, domestic passenger and mail routes were established in the eastern, western, and northern parts of the country. In New Zealand, parallel developments occurred but lagged by nearly a decade. In the late 1930s, a crucial air route from Auckland, linking Oceania to Asia and North America, was developed by Pan American Airways. However, these and many other commercial operations were put on hold with the start of World War II.

With the postwar era came a large expansion in commercial air routes and operations, domestically and internationally. New advanced long-range aircraft were acquired to update and expand fleets. Air tourism, throughout Oceania and to destinations around the globe, was heavily promoted and rapidly grew. Through a diverse collection of airliner models, promotional items, meal service wares, and flight, cabin, and ground crew uniform pieces, Flying Down Under presents a legacy of this profound growth from the 1950s through the mid-1980s.

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