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Qantas Airways Limited is the national airline of Australia. The name was originally QANTAS, an acronym for "Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services". Nicknamed "The Flying Kangaroo", the airline is based in Sydney, with its main hub at Sydney Airport. It is Australia's largest airline and is the world's second oldest continuously operating airline (behind KLM) and the oldest in the English speaking world.

In 2008, Qantas was voted the third best airline in the world by research consultancy firm Skytrax, up from fifth-place position in 2007 but a drop from the second-place position it held in 2005 and 2006.

Investors outside Australia took a strong interest in the float, securing 20% of the stock which, together with British Airways 25% holding, meant that, once floated on the stock exchange, Qantas was 55% Australian owned and 45% foreign owned. By law, Qantas must be at least 51% Australian-owned, and the level of foreign ownership is constantly monitored.

Qantas' main international hubs are Sydney Airport and Melbourne Airport. However, Qantas operates a significant number of international flights into and out of Brisbane, Perth, Singapore Changi, Los Angeles International and London Heathrow airports. Its domestic hubs are Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth airports, but the company also has a strong presence in Adelaide, Cairns and Canberra airports. It serves a range of international and domestic destinations.

Qantas wholly owns Jetstar Airways, JetConnect (which operates New Zealand domestic and some TransTasman services), QantasLink (including, Airlink, Sunstate and Eastern Australia Airlines), and Express Freighters Australia.

Qantas did have a minor 4.2% stake in Air New Zealand, but this was sold on 26 June 2007 for $NZ119 million. Qantas owns 49% of the Fiji-based international carrier Air Pacific. It owns 50% of both Australian air Express and Star Track Express (a trucking company), with the other 50% of both companies owned by Australia Post. Since its privatisation in 1993, Qantas has been one of the most profitable airlines in the world. It was recently voted 5th best airline in the world in the 2007 World Airline Awards (with surveys conducted by Skytrax) having fallen from 2nd in 2005-6.

Qantas has stepped up the expansion of Jetstar, with the launch of international services (in addition to existing trans-Tasman and Jetstar Asia flights) to leisure destinations such as Bali, Ho Chi Minh City, Osaka and Honolulu having begun in November 2006. On some routes such as Sydney-Honolulu, Jetstar will supplement existing Qantas operations but many routes are new to the network. The lower cost base of Jetstar allows the previously unprofitable or marginal routes to be operated at greater profitability.