The Australian airline, Qantas, flies from the United States to Australia. Although Qantas only flies out of Los Angeles and New York in the United States, it has code-sharing agreements and partnerships with other airlines that expand the Qantas reach to many other cities, including Seattle, Portland, Denver and Chicago. Qantas flies direct to Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane in Australia. Although flights schedules can vary, Qantas offers (as of September 2010) two nonstop flights per day from Los Angeles to Sydney and one nonstop flight per day from Los Angeles to Melbourne. Many other flights are available with multiple stops and layovers.
United Airlines offers direct flights to Australia from both San Francisco and Los Angeles. Flights leaving from those two cities fly nonstop to Sydney. United then flies on from Sydney to Melbourne. As of September 2010, United operates one flight per day from Los Angeles to Sydney.
Air New Zealand flies out of Los Angeles and San Francisco in North America. International flights from North America don't fly directly to Australia. Air New Zealand flights first stop in Auckland, where passengers either transfer to flights between New Zealand and Australia or where the flight originating in the United States continues on to Australian destinations, including Cairns, Perth, Gold Coast, Sidney and Melbourne. As of September 2010, Air New Zealand operates one flight per day from both Los Angeles and San Francisco to Auckland, with multiple links to Australian destinations.
Many airlines participate in code-sharing agreements. Code-sharing agreements allow passengers buying a ticket from an airline such as, for example, Continental to fly on airplanes operated by Qantas. These agreements extend the flights available to a particular airline and allow passengers to fly as much as possible on the airline issuing the ticket, while offering destinations at which the issuing airline has no ground rights. Through code sharing, an airline such as Continental can offer flights to Australia even though no Continental aircraft fly to Australia.
Many other international airlines fly into Australia. Airlines include Emirates Airlines, Cathay Pacific, British Airways, Air China, Air Canada, Korean Airlines, Japan Airlines, South African Airlines, Asiana Airlines, China Airlines, Thai Airways and Indonesian Airlines. Although these airlines don't fly from the United States to Australia, they may be the most direct flight to Australia from various international starting points.
