Background Information.

 

Between April 2000 and February 2001 Impulse Airlines Pty Ltd took delivery of eight Boeing 717-200s for low cost operations between Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Newcastle and Hobart.

In April 2001 Impulse and Qantas came to an agreement whereby Impulse would wet-lease all their services to Qantas with Qantas to market the routes and give Impulse a cash injection, with a further option for Qantas to buy out the company at a later date.

On May 27, 2001 Impulse Airlines began operations as a Qantaslink carrier, and at first used the operating name AirConnex. Qantas quickly employed the aircraft to expand its routes into the Gold Coast, Maroochydore and Hamilton Island in addition to the initial destinations. From this date all Impulse flights carried a Qantas flight number.

The fleet of Boeing 717s was gradually painted into the standard Qantas livery with the title 'QANTASLINK' painted on the fuselage of each aircraft.

On November 22, 2001 Qantas purchased Impulse Airlines. It changed the operating name to Qantaslink and began to expand the fleet with the introduction of six more Boeing 717s.

In 2003 plans were put into action to make the Boeing 717 fleet the backbone of a new low cost operation under the name 'Jetstar' which was formed on May 25, 2004 with its headquarters in Melbourne. The 14 aircraft were all transferred to the new airline on that date and continued in operation until the last one was withdrawn in 2006 following Jetstar’s introduction of the Airbus A320.

After leaving Jetstar, the aircraft were gradually inducted into the fleet of National Jet Systems of Adelaide to replace their fleet of British Aerospace BAe146s which had also been operating as 'Qantaslink' aircraft. National Jet Systems changed its name to Cobham Aviation Services in 2009.

In 2008 three of the fleet of Boeing 717s were returned to the lessors and the subsequent acquisition of other models has ultimately brought the fleet size to 20 aircraft.

With the expanded fleet Cobham Aviation Services have added Alice Springs, Darwin, Nhulunbuy, Uluru, Cairns, Adelaide, Perth, Karratha, Broome, Port Hedland, Paraburdoo, Kalgoorlie and Newman to the network.