After 24 years of service in Australian skies, Qantas officially retired its Boeing 717 fleet at the end of October. The final flight was supposed to be QF1511 from Sydney to Canberra on 26 October 2024, which even had several aviation YouTubers on board to mark the occasion.
Paul Stewart was one of them, posting this video after the event:
Rory Ding posted a similar video of the “final flight”:
Indeed, QantasLink CEO Rachel Yangoyan said on 26 October that “today marks a significant moment in Australian aviation with the 717ās iconic T-shaped tail taking passengers to Australian skies for the last time”.
Most of the Boeing 717s that were previously in the QantasLink fleet have since been flown to the United States. But the fate of QantasLink’s final Boeing 717 has taken a rather surprising twist…
The retirement of Qantas’ final 717 lasted a week
The QantasLink Boeing 717 registered VH-YQW – instantly recognisable for its Tasmanian devil footprints – operated its “final” commercial flight on 26 October. But after just a week, this aircraft apparently got bored and decided it wanted to go back to work.
On 5 November, Qantas flew VH-YQW to Perth. The plane then re-entered commercial passenger service the next day, operating on the Perth-Paraburdoo route for three weeks.
It did this to support Network Aviation, a Perth-based regional airline that operates Fokker 100s and Airbus jets under the QantasLink brand. Network Aviation has reportedly been having some reliability issues with its Fokker fleet, which has an average age of 31 years. It needed the extra aircraft to supplement its operations and meet its contractual obligations.
Once the stint in Perth was over, Qantas flew this 717 back to Canberra without passengers on 27 November. Finally, this aircraft could enjoy its retirement… or could it?
Qantas brought this 717 back into service for a second time
On 28 November, Qantas had been planning to position VH-YQW from Canberra to Brisbane for its final (final) flight, where it would be given to a Brisbane-based aviation school. But there was another last minute change of plans.
QantasLink’s modern new Airbus A220 is supposed to be taking over the routes that the Boeing 717s previously flew. These are lovely aircraft to fly on, and also offer better economics to the airline.
But the first batch of A220s have had a few engineering issues. QantasLink also appears to be short on crew to actually fly these aircraft. So, QantasLink isn’t currently able to run the full Airbus A220 schedule it had originally planned for the five A220s it now has in service. (QantasLink received its fifth A220 just last week and put it into commercial service on Sunday 8 December.)
So, on 28 November, VH-YQW didn’t fly to Brisbane. It instead flew up to Sydney without passengers, and then re-entered service as QF1522 to Hobart to fill in for an Airbus A220 that was missing in action.
Over the following week, this 717 made another four round trips between Sydney and Hobart, before flying back to Canberra last weekend.
Come Monday morning of this week, the 717 was back in commercial service yet again, flying two round trips with passengers to Melbourne. It also flew another round-trip from Sydney to Hobart yesterday.
This aircraft is not currently scheduled to operate any more passenger flights, but that doesn’t mean it won’t. Who knows, maybe we’ll see it pop up next week in another part of the country? š
