Channel 9 have teamed up with Qantas to go behind the scenes of the airline with new eight part observational documentary series Ready For Take-Off which will premiere on the network on Friday, October 30 at 7.30pm.Every year Qantas transports over 50 million passengers, from locations as diverse as Kununurra in the Australian Outback to London’s bustling Heathrow, with a workforce of 30,000 to ensure they have a smooth trip.
Ready For Take-Off goes where no TV show has gone before – behind the restricted lines of the airport terminal, onto the tarmac, and into the nerve centre of the whole global operation to find out what it takes to keep 160,000 passengers a day moving.
The series follows the dedicated staff at the heart of Qantas who work around the clock and behind the scenes to keep the carrier in the air: pilots, cabin crew, engineers, trainers, caterers, ground staff and customer service managers. Ready For Take-Off is told through their eyes, with viewers getting a front-row seat in areas normally off-limits for one of the world’s great airlines.
Watch as the crisis room comes alive when major weather events threaten to ground Qantas. Join the First Class hosts who fend off screaming fans as A-list celebrities land for a whirlwind tour. Go behind the curtain to discover what First Class is all about. And explore deep within the aircraft to see where the cabin crew sleep during long-haul flights.
Walk in the shoes of the managers who trek 20,000 steps a day fighting the madness that is the departures hall, and get a sense of just how big a job it is to service an Airbus A380 engine.
Cameras will be given unprecedented all-areas access, from the workers who empty raw sewage from the aircraft to the Integrated Operations Centre (IOC) in Sydney: the 24-hour, state-of-the-art hub at the heart of the international Qantas network.
With over 200 staff, the IOC brings teams from all departments together in one room, and is the first port of call for any unfolding problem on any Qantas flight anywhere in the world.
Fasten your seat belt, secure your tray table, put your chair in the upright position – and get ready to see Qantas like you’ve never seen it before.
