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There won’t be any Qantas Dreamliners called the Spirit of Chiko Roll, after Alan Joyce ruled out the suggestion. Picture: News Corp Australia
EXCLUSIVE: Qantas wouldn’t mind naming a 787 “quokka” but “sausage sizzle”, “chiko roll” and “yeah nah” are definitely out of the running.
A shortlist of 20 names is being put to a public vote from today, including native animals, sports stars, famous landmarks and even “cooee”.
The top 20 was taken from more than 40,000 suggestions received by Qantas in the last two weeks after appealing for public help to name the eight Boeing Dreamliners after Australian icons.
Proposed names ranged from the humorous like Ned Kelly, sausage sizzle, chiko roll, iced vo-vo and Alf Stewart — to the more sensible including Fred Hollows, Evonne Goolagong and Don Bradman.
The Flying Quokka? The cute native animals are among the names on the shortlist for the new Qantas Dreamliners. Picture: FacebookSource:Facebook
Others to make the shortlist, were The Great Barrier Reef, Uluru, Great Ocean Road, Kokoda and Great Southern Land.
Jumbuck, kookaburra, Skippy, jillaroo and vegemite also earned a spot in the top 20, along with Joan Sutherland, dreamtime, boomerang and “true blue”.
“There were so many great entries that truly reflected the spirit of Australia and we’re thrilled with the response,” said Qantas Group CEO Alan Joyce.
“It was obvious that people really put some thought into different themes we could use to name our fleet of eight new Dreamliners including famous explorers to some of their favourite Aussie sayings.”
Vegemite’s campaign to “spread the wings” of a new Qantas Dreamliner seems to be paying off with the name among 20 short-listed for the 787-9s. Picture: FacebookSource:Facebook
Mr Joyce said some suggestions, like Kingswood and yeah-nah, were “very funny but probably not suitable for an aircraft that would be flying around the globe”.
Members of the public will have the next few days to vote on the short-listed names at the qantas.com website — with the winners to be revealed by Qantas next week.
Other Qantas aircraft carry the names of Australian places, aviation pioneers, explorers and birds continuing a long tradition.
The first planes in the airlines’ fleet were named after figures from Greek mythology but now Qantas prefers to reflect the Flying Kangaroo’s Australian roots.