Qantas in friendly skies with Sydney-San Francisco service

Qantas has finally returned to the city with which many Australians have had a long love affair, San Francisco.

And if you love hassle-free travel, San Francisco certainly has the airport for you.

The first service was on March 29 with the flight met by Qantas ambassador John Travolta and San Francisco mayor, Gavin Newsom.

Not surprisingly, Qantas has had a strong response to the three-times-weekly service, and insiders suggest it won’t be long before it will commence daily services. CFO Peter Gregg told Business Class the airline has “plans to develop the route further over time”.The new services take to 43 the number of weekly flights between Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne to Los Angeles and San Francisco.

Mr Gregg said San Francisco was the first mainland US 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.

QF73’s arrival time of 10.15am offers excellent connections to other major US cities including Dallas, Chicago, Miami and Boston, with Qantas’ Oneworld partner, American Airlines.

From June 14 to August 13 and December 1 to January 28, the flight will continue on to Vancouver and will take the number of North American destinations served by Qantas to five – Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, Vancouver and Honolulu.

Mr Travolta told media at the arrival ceremony that he was “sure it will prove a popular destination for visitors from Australia”.

Perth passengers connect with the San Francisco flight, taking QF574 at 5.50am from Perth. On the return trip the San Francisco flight connects with QF575 – another 747 – departing Sydney at 8.25am.

Whereas for many business executives the San Francisco love affair was born in the 1960s around the music and carefree spirit of the flower power generation, today it is the hassle-free travel experience that will win many over.

Last year, San Francisco was named best airport in the US.

And it’s not hard to see why. The customs officers in San Francisco are a starkly different breed to their cousins in Los Angeles, who seem to treat anyone who is not an American citizen as a terrorist.

And the maximum wait time at peak times for security screening was just seven minutes in 2005.

Connections to American Airlines in Terminal 3 and Alaskan Airlines in Terminal 1 are quick, with both terminals adjacent to International Terminal Side A, from which Qantas operates.

Getting to and from the airport to downtown San Francisco is easy, with the BART train operating every 15 minutes at a cost of $US5. Travel time is 25 minutes.