Virgin Australia’s tweet on 10 June 2014 to announce they had landed in Longreach, Queensland for the first time elicited a rather cheeky tweet from QANTAS. Virgin Australia’s tweet  “We landed at Longreach, the birthplace of Australian aviation, for the 1st time today on a flight chartered by the QLD State of Origin team” prompted QANTAS to reply “Welcome to our birth place, the home of Australia’s only national carrier. Thanks for visiting!”

Maybe QANTAS was just a little too quick proclaiming Longreach as their “birthplace” and likewise Virgin Australia incorrectly calling the  “birthplace of Australian aviation”.  According to the QANTAS as stated on their website tracing its history, QANTAS’ birthplace is actually Winton a good 177km northwest of Longreach – “In the words of McMaster, Winton was `the official birthplace of Qantas’. The first and only meeting of directors in the town was held on 10 February 1921. Qantas operations were then moved 160km south-east to Longreach, which was more central to the operational area” (source QANTAS.com).

Virgin Australia’s reply was “It was our pleasure”. In any event, this friendly banter between the two carriers was good exposure and publicity for both. Copy of the tweet below.