After over 34 years of non-stop trans-Pacific 747 services, QANTAS operated its last regularly scheduled 747 flight to Los Angeles on 28 November 2018. The last flight, flying as QF55 from Brisbane to Los Angeles, was operated by aircraft registration VH-OJS, a Boeing 747-438 named ‘Hamilton Island, delivered new to the airline on 30 September 1999. This represents the end of an era, considering QANTAS’ first non-stop 747 service to Los Angeles was operated on 07 April 1984 – a then brand-new Boeing 747-SP registration VH-EAA as flight QF11.
From Los Angeles, the last QANTAS 747 flight will be the QF56 to Sydney via Brisbane departing on 29 November. The last sector of this flight from Brisbane to Sydney of the QF56 on 01 December, will also be the end of regular QANTAS 747 services in Brisbane. Los Angeles flights from Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney will now be operated exclusively by Airbus A380 and Boeing 787-9 aircraft.
Hong Kong’s last regularly scheduled QANTAS 747 will operate as flight QF127 on 30 November 2018, returning to Sydney as QF128 on the same date. After this date until 28 March 2019, these flights will be operated by Airbus A380 which also sees the return of a First Class cabin product to this market. The Boeing 787-9 and Airbus A330s will operate the QF127/128 flights from 29 March 2019.
QANTAS 747 services from 01 December 2018 will operate exclusively to and from Sydney. The schedule for remaining 747 flights from this date will be:
– Daily Tokyo-Haneda flights QF25/26
– Six times weekly Johannesburg flights QF63/64 (daily during peak times Dec/Jan)
– Four times weekly Santiago de Chile flights QF27/28 (increases to 5 times weekly Dec/Jan)
– Daily San Francisco flights QF73/74 (reduces to six times weekly in March)
– Five times weekly Honolulu QF3/4 (six times weekly Dec/Jan)
– Seasonal thrice weekly Vancouver QF73/74 (Dec18-Jan19 and Dec19-Jan20) – no plans for Jun-Jul19 as in previous years
The following 747 domestic services are planned which are tied in with the Antarctica charter flights:
– 31 December 2018, QF423 Sydney – Melbourne
– 01 January 2019, QF424 Melbourne – Sydney
– 25 January 2019, QF567 Sydney – Perth
– 27 January 2019, QF574 Perth – Sydney
– 09 February 2019, QF435 Sydney – Melbourne
– 11 February 2019, QF430 Melbourne – Sydney
– November 2019 – Brisbane and Adelaide – to be confirmed
Note: schedules and aircraft type are subject to change – please verify again at time of booking if you’re interested in these flights.
QANTAS 747 planned phase out schedule
Whilst there is no set date at this time, all 747s are scheduled to be retired by the fourth quarter of 2020. The timeline for the phase is scheduled with the delivery of the remaining six Boeing 787-9s from the original order. The three remaining non-ER 747s (VH-OJS/OEB/OJU) are scheduled to leave in Q1/2/3 in 2019 respectively. Three 787-9s (VH-ZNI/J/K) are scheduled for delivery in Q4 2020. In 2020 the six 747-438ERs will be retired – VH-OEF/G/H in Q1/2/3 respectively and VH-OEE/I/J in Q4. Three more 787-9s will be delivered in Q2 and Q3 (VH-ZNL/M/N).
It will indeed be a sad day when the last QANTAS 747 ‘Queen of the Skies’ which is arguably considered the most iconic airliner ever produced.
©AIRLINE HUB BUZZ 2018 – REPRODUCTION NOT PERMITTED.