Apparently QF28 on its way back from Santiago is the last ever QF 747 flight

[p--and--t]

Probably. But better to have a seat and not be able to use it than to not have one. At some point, we’ll need to get back to work.

...and if you are allowed to take the flight, looking forward to the 2 week stay in a hotel of the governments choosing on the way back?

 

[N860CR]

...and if you are allowed to take the flight, looking forward to the 2 week stay in a hotel of the governments choosing on the way back?

Yep that’s fine. Cost of doing business.

I dare say that Qantas won’t be resuming services until that restriction is relaxed.

 

[bPeteb]

Probably. But better to have a seat and not be able to use it than to not have one. At some point, we’ll need to get back to work.

Fair enough

 

[jb747]

Internal feedback is that the CEO of international has said that the story is false. Nevertheless, he's also admitted that the 747s are unlikely to be pulled back into service after storage. So, a bit of a no and yes answer, but to be honest, I suspect that's as good as it gets in the current climate.

Both of the harbour fly pasts were arranged by the Captains concerned, with zero company input.

 

[NSun]

Internal feedback is that the CEO of international has said that the story is false. Nevertheless, he's also admitted that the 747s are unlikely to be pulled back into service after storage. So, a bit of a no and yes answer, but to be honest, I suspect that's as good as it gets in the current climate.

Both of the harbour fly pasts were arranged by the Captains concerned, with zero company input.

I work as a journalist and in that capacity contacted Qantas (it is relevant to a story I was writing - I wasn't just taking advantage of this). I was essentially told the same thing that they have not officially been retired but there is a chance they may not be put back into service after the downturn. They did confirm they might be used on government charter flights.

Most notably they said yesterday's QF28 was," the last regular scheduled international flight arriving into Sydney, which happened to be a 747".

 

[bPeteb]

Internal feedback is that the CEO of international has said that the story is false. Nevertheless, he's also admitted that the 747s are unlikely to be pulled back into service after storage. So, a bit of a no and yes answer, but to be honest, I suspect that's as good as it gets in the current climate.

Both of the harbour fly pasts were arranged by the Captains concerned, with zero company input.

Thanks jb. Even as I pushed submit on the original post I wondered 'should I?'

 

[moa999]

Both of the harbour fly pasts were arranged by the Captains concerned, with zero company input.

Must have been some input. Can't imagine Nine putting up the chopper in the hope that the aircraft did a harbour flyover.

 

[N860CR]

Must have been some input. Can't imagine Nine putting up the chopper in the hope that the aircraft did a harbour flyover.

Given the amount of social media hype and fake news that was going on as the thing left Santiago, they probably intended to film it landing anyway.

 

[jb747]

Must have been some input. Can't imagine Nine putting up the chopper in the hope that the aircraft did a harbour flyover.

News helicopters are flown by pilots.... I'm sure they have lots of contacts in ATC, and with friends in the airlines.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Seems to be getting picked up by other sites: End of the line for the Qantas Boeing 747?

Also seems to indicate that QF will favour smaller aircraft when it comes back on line... which I fear is going to push fares up and catch a lot of folk who have accepted vouchers off guard

 

[NSun]

Seems to be getting picked up by other sites: End of the line for the Qantas Boeing 747?

Also seems to indicate that QF will favour smaller aircraft when it comes back on line... which I fear is going to push fares up and catch a lot of folk who have accepted vouchers off guard

It seems unlikely that they'll be retired immediately if everything is back to normal on June 1 - when Qantas resumes its international operations. Although this is no guarantee.

Between than and mid-September Qantas was replacing all 3 of it's 787 SFO services with just 1 747 from Sydney. As well as this the Santiago 787 handover was delayed until August 1 and no mention has been made about Johannesburg. But the longer this crisis lasts the harder it will be to see them back in service.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

I don’t hold out much hope for a 1 june resumption of service, unless they have a vaccine out by mid May.

 

[NSun]

I don’t hold out much hope for a 1 june resumption of service, unless they have a vaccine out by mid May.

And even if there are some international flights back on June 1 it is unlikely to be the full network. But it does not look like Qantas have given up on the 747s yet because they have denied publicly that this is the end for them.

 

[blusamis]

I might be in the minority, but the sooner the better. I flew to SCL last year and the 747s are tired and noisy. In one direction we had an unfurnished bird with no AVOD and gaffa tape holding panels and bathroom fixtures in place. The old school seats are like armchairs however, the sole redeeming feature.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

I might be in the minority, but the sooner the better. I flew to SCL last year and the 747s are tired and noisy.

Exactly. There are 747s and 747s. QF's at the were rather tired, had a bad hard product in business, and weren't a terribly pleasant ride.

Compare that to the beautiful new 747-8 - that's a lovely plane to fly

 

[esseeeayeenn]

Qantas has not announced what they'll do for South Africa but if the the 787 got the green light for Santiago I don't see why it couldn't handle Johannesburg.

Qantas wanted to start flying PER-JNB instead, with feeder flights similar to QF9/QF10 MEL-PER-LHR, but their dispute with Perth Airport has prevented this.

 

[N860CR]

Qantas wanted to start flying PER-JNB instead, with feeder flights similar to QF9/QF10 MEL-PER-LHR, but their dispute with Perth Airport has prevented this.

That was to be additional to the Sydney service. Given SAA may never return to Perth... I wouldn't be surprised to see QF63/64 become a SYD-PER-JNB which the A330 could handle just fine.

 

[Cool Cat Phil]

That was to be additional to the Sydney service. Given SAA may never return to Perth... I wouldn't be surprised to see QF63/64 become a SYD-PER-JNB which the A330 could handle just fine.

This is quite actually plausible. If SAA don’t return to PER and eventually things get back to normal here in Australia in terms of demand, then one could not rule out double daily flights ( potentially one from another city ) or potentially the A380 ex Syd. But under the current climate it’s all very much speculative.

 

[jb747]

Exactly. There are 747s and 747s. QF's at the were rather tired, had a bad hard product in business, and weren't a terribly pleasant ride.

There is/was plenty of life left in the 747ERs. Sadly, once AJ decided he didn’t like them, nothing was going to be spent on the cabin or fittings. So, that’s a choice of the airline, not really the aircraft.

Compare that to the beautiful new 747-8 - that's a lovely plane to fly

Probably why so many airlines have bought it...

I‘m not really sure why the geniuses at Boeing decided to build the 747-8 at all. It has been a commercial failure. It was years late, even though it was built on such a solid aircraft. It has/had some curious flutter issues, that preclude the use of its tail tank fuel. So, whilst decrying the need for ultra large aircraft, Boeing wasted billions of developing this update, when that money and time could have been much more usefully used in bringing a 737/757 replacement to life. Of course, it was the same management team that gave us the MAX.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Probably why so many airlines have bought it...

I'm talking purely from the passenger perspective! No idea of any issues around flying it or the economics. But Lufthansa does a lovely job of the fit out, and it's a really nice plane to be in