cedarjet wrote:

The Qantas 747 fleet was sold in the early hours of Friday morning and will ferry to Mojave in the coming weeks. That flight from SCL was the end of a chapter in Australian history. Thanks jumbo!

PS tribute on Sam Chui’s site
https://samchui.com/2020/03/28/qantas-t ... is-weekend

OA411 wrote:

Sad to see them go that soon... any idea what they will use now to JNB & SCL? Can they push ETOPS on their 787 that far?

danipawa wrote:

Qantas Parking Boeing 747s – No Retirement Yet

https://simpleflying.com/qantas-747-par ... 8SZbFWLKKc

zeke wrote:

jfk777 wrote:

When the A380 gets retired, what is going to replace them ? The 777-9 is bigger than an A350-1000, Airbus doesn't make an A350-1100.

Who knows how this will end, the A380, 747, and A330 may all have already retired, we just don’t know how long this will last. No airline can afford not to fly widebodies at all.

ClassicLover wrote:

Williambaker08 wrote:

Qantas did own one 747-100. It was a ex American Airlines that Qantas bought in the late 1980s. I believe the tail number was VH-EEI. They also operated but didnt own two more 747-100s. One was a lease from Aer Lingus a 747-130 EI-BED 30/11/1987-14/12/1988 and 747-131 I believe from Tower Air N93117 01/11/1987-01/03/1987. However none of these were in Qantas Livery at all.

You are wrong, they did not own a Boeing 747-100. The exact information for that frame is from here and the relevant portion is below.

The aircraft was leased to Qantas Airways Ltd as the registered operator - ?

Arrived Singapore on completion of the ferry flight (Captain C. Viertal) as QF500D - March 02, 1988

Ferry route: Brussels - Bahrain - Singapore

The aircraft entered maintenance and repaint into the Air Pacific livery at Singapore - March 02, 1988

Entered onto Australian Aircraft Register as VH-EEI - March 11, 1988

Registered to Citibank North America

Arrived Sydney (Kingsford Smith) on completion of the ferry flight from Singapore as QF500D - April 13, 1988

The aircraft was named 'Island of Viti Levu'

It operated its first revenue service with Air Pacific Sydney (Kingsford Smith) - Nadi as FJ911 - April 27, 1988

Leased to Aer Lingus and sub-leased to Qantas Airways - November 15, 1989

Cancelled from Australian Aircraft Register - November 21, 1989

Entered onto Irish Aircraft Register as EI-CAI - November 21, 1989

It arrived at Sydney (Kingsford Smith) after operating the final revenue service as QF21 - March 19, 1990

Returned to Citicorp at the end of the lease - March 19, 1990

Cancelled from Irish Aircraft Register - March 23, 1990

Entered onto Australian Aircraft Register as VH-EEI - March 23, 1990

Ferried Sydney (Kingsford Smith) - Auckland (Captain C. Viertal) as QF500D - March 23, 1990

Entered heavy maintenance with Air New Zealand Engineering - March 23, 1990

Cancelled from Australian Aircraft Register - March 23, 1990

The aircraft had flown 43,900 hours with 12,284 cycles to date

Entered onto the British Aircraft Register as G-VMIA - March 23, 1990

Leased to Virgin Atlantic Airways as the registered operator

cedarjet wrote:

The Qantas 747 fleet was sold in the early hours of Friday morning and will ferry to Mojave in the coming weeks. That flight from SCL was the end of a chapter in Australian history. Thanks jumbo!

PS tribute on Sam Chui’s site
https://samchui.com/2020/03/28/qantas-t ... is-weekend

ZK-NBT wrote:

Arion640 wrote:

ZK-NBT wrote:

Let’s be honest given the times it really seems quite unlikely that they will fly again for QF, they will be grounded with the rest of the fleet for sometime, retraining may be required for pilots in which case they may as well be retrained in other types.

Even the A380 is interesting here, will all 12 fly again? Maybe not straight away but they may be brought back over time as demand builds?

I think they’ll all have to be brought back. I don’t think Qantas has enough 787’s to carry out all the long haul flying and 4 frames are required for LHR-SYD alone.

After this weekend, BA and Lufthansa will be the only large scale passenger 747-400 operators left.

Edit: There’s still Virgin atlantic too and I believe Thai have a small handful along with maybe China Airlines.

QF actually need 4 789 for a LHR-PER-MEL-LAX daily vv rotation. I think it will take some time for things to fully bounce back so some 789 routes like BNE/MEL-SFO might not come back straight away and use an A380 ex SYD for example, possibly less than daily.

rbavfan wrote:

cedarjet wrote:

The Qantas 747 fleet was sold in the early hours of Friday morning and will ferry to Mojave in the coming weeks. That flight from SCL was the end of a chapter in Australian history. Thanks jumbo!

PS tribute on Sam Chui’s site
https://samchui.com/2020/03/28/qantas-t ... is-weekend

His article does not say they were sold. You need to post a link that proves the sale per site rules.

bennett123 wrote:

When were they due to be retired pre CV?.

777Jet wrote:

danipawa wrote:

Qantas Parking Boeing 747s – No Retirement Yet

https://simpleflying.com/qantas-747-par ... 8SZbFWLKKc

Would be great if they returned to service for a bit and had a proper farewell.

My first ever flight was on a Qantas 747-300.

My last flight (most recent) was on a Qantas 747-400ER.

I'm so glad I booked and flew on one of those QF 747 domestic 'farewell' flights (positioning flights between the Antarctic sightseeing flights) back in November just to finally get to log a 747-400ER - VH-OEI 'Ceduna' was the Queen...

bennett123 wrote:

If they were due to be retired by December 2020, I see no prospect of thm flying again.

Even if borders are open by June, (by no means guaranteed) I doubt that traffic will pick up much overnight.

IMO, we have to conclude that they will not fly for QF again.

Ishrion wrote:

Is the 787-9 not able to do it?

rbavfan wrote:

zeke wrote:

jfk777 wrote:

When the A380 gets retired, what is going to replace them ? The 777-9 is bigger than an A350-1000, Airbus doesn't make an A350-1100.

Who knows how this will end, the A380, 747, and A330 may all have already retired, we just don’t know how long this will last. No airline can afford not to fly widebodies at all.

So Southwest, Ryan Air, jetBlue, Spirit, etc. are not airlines?

VirginFlyer wrote:

rbavfan wrote:

zeke wrote:

Who knows how this will end, the A380, 747, and A330 may all have already retired, we just don’t know how long this will last. No airline can afford not to fly widebodies at all.

So Southwest, Ryan Air, jetBlue, Spirit, etc. are not airlines?

I believe you’ve misunderstood what Zeke said. If you look at the whole of his post it is appears he is saying no airline can afford to have wide bodies sitting around not flying at all, and thus we may see them depart from fleets altogether.

V/F