Australian flag carrier Qantas is storing the remaining five Boeing 747 from their fleet this weekend. Due to the coronavirus crisis and worldwide grounding of Qantas international flying, the last six Qantas 747s will be going to storage and face uncertainty whether it will return to flying.
Of all the aircraft retirements, there was never going to be one as significant as the last Qantas 747. Qantas, celebrating their centenary this year, has been flying international since before WW2 and was operating round the world (by flying to London via Asia/Europe and via the Pacific, San Francisco and New York) with 707s by 1959 (the transatlantic leg ended in the early 1970s). However the fares were out of the reach of everyone but captains of industry, movie stars and diplomats. Everyone else went by ship until the dawning of the age of the jumbo.
When Qantas’ first 747-238B was delivered to Sydney in 1971 it plugged Australia, the most distant of all continents, into the world map at last. Generations of Australians big overseas trips were on a Qantas 747, discovering neighbouring Asia and turning Singapore and Hong Kong into Aussie cities by association. Double decker bus tours of Europe – getting drunk in Munich and getting high in Amsterdam. In England’s capital of London, Earls Court became known to Brits and Aussies alike as Kangaroo Valley. Later, Australia’s cultural focus widened to include California. All of this was because of the 747.
Qantas’ first 747-400, nicknamed Longreach (not only for the range of the new bird but Qantas’ founding town in remote outback Queensland), flew the then-world’s longest flight, from London to Sydney, on August 17th 1988, arriving over the harbour with a couple of hours of fuel still on tap. Farewell 3am fuel stops in the Persian Gulf, hello fourteen hour nonstop sectors; such as Singapore to London and Sydney to Los Angeles.
The last Qantas 747 flight to London was in 2010 and to California was San Francisco in early December 2019, squeezed out by the A380 and B787. After that, the Queen Of The Skies was supposed to enjoy an eighteen month victory lap on the Johannesburg, Tokyo and Santiago runs; followed by the biggest farewell party the aviation world has ever seen.
Alas, the toll of coronavirus COVID-19 has brought a halt to almost all air traffic worldwide; with a ground stop expected to last months. When global mass transit kick starts again, however, one of the great combinations, Qantas and the 747, will be missing at Kingsford-Smith and destinations on three other continents.
Qantas is planning the retirement of their B747 fleet at the end of 2020. It is uncertain how the COVID-19 will play out and there may be a risk to see these beloved 747 not returning to service from storage, which I hope not the case.
Sam Chui has fond memories of photographing many Qantas B747 at Sydney during his college years. Here is a photo tribute to Qantas B747 from his collection.
They retired their Real 747s (SP’s) a relatively long-time ago. 747 SP’s were actually flown/piloted & flight-engineered by Real-men who actually earned their paychecks with Real-jobs (very-demanding jobs). They were NOT essentially fully-automated show-ponies (very-much unlike the 300 & 400 series) . 747 SP’s were Beautiful & Very-Respectable All-American Workhorses.
Great photos Sam, as always. But please stop prematurely reporting false information without the actual facts. Your initial post quoting the jumbo jet has been retired by Qantas caused quite a stir within the industry…. but then again there were other bloggers doing the same… again, great photos! Cheers
Thanks for your feedback. Qantas PR never came out with a definitive statement. There were many media include 2 major TV ch7 and ch9 in Australia reported this as retirement. Up to this minute the fate of these 747 are still uncertain pending how long the covid-19 will last and how the industry will respond. It is not an ideal situation for all of us including many of us who love the 747.
I’m reliably informed that the fleet was sold some time ago in early/mid 2019. Great experience to fly with Qantas, great crews. I was privileged, some time back, to be in the jump seat for the approach and landing into Melbourne after joining the flight in Bangkok. I flashed my United Nations ID card to get a flight deck visit and when I made a move to go back to my seat on the decent, the Captain invited me to stay.for the landing. No locked flight deck doors in 1993 !!. Nice way to arrive back home.
Awesome photos Sam! However, Qantas retiring all Jumbos with 2 days notice is a poor handling of the situation in my opinion. They know how many people love the Jumbo! From other articles I’ve read about this, my understanding is they’ve all been sold to GE. I know the airline is facing hard times, but realistically GE can still be there to purchase after COVID is over. From previous reading I also understand that a deal between GE and Qantas for the sale of the remaing Jumbos has been on the table for some time. So, if Qantas needs the cash now why not arrange a sort of ‘pay now, deliver later’ approach for the sale. Regardless, the Jumbos won’t get many hours while this crisis is going on, so holding off until the original retirement date (or a few months later than it) shouldn’t reduce the sale value significantly. I do not know for sure, I’m just throwing ideas out there because surely there’s another way and I’m gutted by this.
Also I think it’s a fair bet that 1000’s of people were planning to fly with Qantas over the next several months so they could enjoy the beautiful Queen for the last time, willing to pay extra for it. Many of those people will go with alternative airlines that are cheaper or just won’t fly at all. I’m unfortunately one of those people.
I would absolutely contribute to a crowdfunding initiative to provide the necessary funds to reverse this decision, so long as it was approved by Qantas. Though let’s be honest, it would probably not raise all the required funds.
All hail the queen! Such a beautiful piece of aviation history in that airplane..!
Really bummed this is happening already! Hopefully BA keeps their -400s flying after the pandemic ends.
Beautiful pics of such a historic aircraft. Wish you would link all the pics above with the full-size, HD photos. With the effects of the worldwide coronavirus still playing out, hopefully the sunset of the 747 doesn’t mark the sunset of Boeing as well.