Southern Cross Route

Southern Cross Route is the industry term for passenger flights from Australasia (or Oceania) to Europe via the Western Hemisphere. The term's initiation was the 1954 Qantas flight across the Pacific, Sydney for San Francisco and Vancouver, named in honor of Sir Charles Kingsford Smith's historic 1928 flight in the aircraft Southern Cross.[1][2] The Kangaroo Route is its counterpart running through the Eastern Hemisphere, with many more flights. Both terms were invented by airlines when they started flying the two routes (Qantas on the Kangaroo Route, British Commonwealth Pacific Airlines on the Southern Cross[3]), so they have no "official" definitions; probably no airline has ever described a route from Europe to Australasia via South America as "the Southern Cross Route". (And BCPA/Qantas called it the "Southern Cross Route" when it only extended from Australia to Vancouver, before 1958.)

The February 1959 OAG shows three Qantas 1049Gs a week flying Melbourne to Heathrow via San Francisco in 65 hours total. No other airline had direct flights Europe to Australasia via North America until BOAC in 1967. Four airlines offer through flights (i.e. not requiring passengers to change plane en route) on the Southern Cross Route: Air New Zealand, Air Tahiti Nui, French Bee, and Air France.

Air New Zealand operated the Auckland–Los Angeles–London Heathrow route and an Auckland-Hong Kong-London Heathrow route, making it the only airline flying both the Southern Cross Route and the Kangaroo Route. Before Air New Zealand cancelled its Hong Kong–London flight in March 2013 in favour of a codeshare with Cathay Pacific it was the only airline still operating round-the-world service. However, Air New Zealand announced in October 2019 that it will permanently stop serving flights between London and Los Angeles, putting an end to its Southern Cross Route. The airline is still expected to continue its co-sharing agreements with its Star Alliance partner United Airlines.[4] Air Tahiti Nui and Air France both operate a Tahiti–Los Angeles–Paris-CDG route. French Bee also operates from mainland France to French Polynesia, routing as ORY-SFO-PPT. French Bee is the first and only low cost carrier to fly the Southern Cross route.

Several other airlines (e.g. United Airlines and Delta Air Lines) have route networks extending across the Pacific and Atlantic, but none of them currently offer through flights from Europe to Australia. Air Canada flies to Sydney and Brisbane from Vancouver using the airline's new Boeing 777 and 787 aircraft. Air Canada has flown to Melbourne with its seasonal service from 3 December 2017 to 4 February 2018, however, they will return with a year-round service by 3 June 2018. Connecting flights are available on Air Canada to London Heathrow Airport, Frankfurt and with Star Alliance partner Lufthansa to Frankfurt and Munich (though these flights currently only operate on a seasonal basis in summer).

LAN Airlines operates service from Europe via Santiago to a host of South Pacific destinations, including Sydney and Auckland.

In the past, additional services were offered along this route. Air Tahiti Nui briefly operated a Tahiti–New York JFK–Paris-CDG route, but it was quickly discontinued. Qantas once operated flights on this route along with the Kangaroo route, but it dropped the transatlantic flight in 1974–75 and no airline had direct flights until Air New Zealand started in the 1980s. Aerolíneas Argentinas also operated from Rome, Madrid, or Barcelona to Auckland and Sydney via Buenos Aires until 2013.