The last of the delay prone ‘classic’ era Qantas jumbo jets, a Boeing 747-338 left Sydney for the desert scrap heap at Marana, Arizona, last night. Its departure, a mere 45 minutes late, is believed to have been held up by air traffic control delays.
The jet built in 1985 spent much of its final year bringing misery to Qantas passengers on the transcontinental routes to Perth as well as international services, like other unsatisfactorily maintained elderly 747s in the airline’s fleet. This model 747, the first to sport a stretched upper deck, had an illustrious career with airlines that looked after them. It was a very sound airliner. But without a ready inventory of spare parts at ports like Perth, and without the TLC that was missing for all of last year as Qantas discovered it couldn’t run a proper engineering and maintenance program without high levels of over time from a work force already in revolt over pay and conditions, these older jumbos were an operational millstone for the carrier.
This 747 was among a cluster of three ‘classics’ that Qantas never intended to keep in service as long as it did. But Airbus screwed up their intended replacement through the delayed deliveries of the giant A380, and Boeing contributed to the general aged aircraft issues confronting Qantas by not delivering expected Dreamliner 787s. These delays meant Qantas was not receiving new fleet that would require less maintenance, and less fuel.
Copyrights@Peter Ricketts
Peter Ricketts, the author of the email bulletin, Asia-Pacific Aerospace Report, took these photos.
17 Comments
Qantas should of bought more of the B747-400ER (the ones that were delivered in October 2002). They have been performing quite well for Qantas. Another success for Qantas was the B747-200.
It had the chance and missed it. In 2000 Boeing offered the 747-400ER as an alternative to the A380 and at a very low price. Instead Qantas ordered both the A380 and the 744ER , and became the only airline to buy this limited edition of the best passenger version of the jumbo jet ever built. Had Qantas bought more as you suggest, say 12 instead of 6, the ‘classics’ would have been retired much sooner, and the benefit to the carrier and its customers would have been significant.
The 744ERs as they often called are young airframes and will presumably be the last of the jumbos to leave the Qantas fleet, perhaps around 2014 or 2015. They have already made the new non-stop services between Sydney and Buenos Aires a viable reality, and will at a guess spend most of their remaining economic lifetimes flying the far southern routes to Southern Africa and South America where big twin jets cannot legally operate and more growth is needed before A380s could be deployed on them.
Totally agree with you Ben. I can’t believe Qantas didn’t buy more of the B747-400ER at the discounted price. It was one of the biggest mistakes Qantas ever made, I heard the Qantas pilots really wanted the B747-400ER as well. Airbus didn’t give Qantas any discount for the A380. Qantas effectively shot itself in the foot. Boeing is still trying to offer Qantas the B747-8 Intercontinental at a extra low price as well.
The discount for the A380 came in the form of 13 very inexpensive A330s which were part of the original deal. With the perfect vision of hindsight Boeing might have been very well served to have linked 777s to its offer of 744ERs.
The 747 will reach its ultimate development as the 747-8 freighter, which is somewhat delayed at the moment although work on the No 1 jet is underway. I haven’t a clue as to whether the passenger version ordered by Lufthansa will in fact be built, but we may hear more in the very near future when Boeing briefs analysts next week. Regardless of what exactly the future holds for the 747-8 the freighter and VIP versions have achieved strong sales in their respective market zones. The 747 has already secured its place in air transport history as a magnificent and capable family of airliners.
Very true. Freighter version of 747-8 is a super success. I hope the passenger version survives, even though Lufthansa is the only customer.
Here is a video of the high-tech interior of the 747-8 passenger version:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_e56uMnc2M
Boeing also made the 747-400ER at the request of Qantas, because Qantas wanted a slightly more powerful 747-400. So if Boeing designed this 747 at Qantas’s request, then Qantas should made more orders for it.
Sorry Bree,
I never had any pleasant experiences when flying on those ancient 747s. Either East to West or VV.
I am glad they have finally gone I no longer need to juggle timetables to avoid them. (Not so easy in WA)
My last experience – a failure to get one engine started at PER and a flight that took us over Kalgoorlie rather than the Bight.
Ben ( as I recall) thought it might be quite an experience to land a 338 at Kal.
Corrode in peace at Marapana….
Give me a modern Airbus any day.
Bill
Bill, Airbus A330 planes from Perth-Singapore have been having alot of problems when flying over Exmouth, WA. When B747-300’s used to do the Perth-Singapore route several years ago, they never had any problems. Does any think Qantas should make a request to Boeing to make some B747-400D’s? In Japan they use 747s for domestic flights! That would be very cool here in Australia. I know Qantas used to use 743’s for domestic flights from Perth to Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane or Canberra about 10 years ago.
On the topic of the Qantas A330 incidents associated with the Naval communications base near Exmouth, they weren’t really near it at all. The first loss of control incident happened when it was 145 kilometres away, leading to an emergency landing at Learmonth, and the second, when it was more than 630 kilometres from the base, lead to a return to Perth.
These were serious incidents. But I don’t buy any link to electromagnetic interference from the base, since many A330s, and sometimes one or two A380s a day, and around four to six A340s and about two A320s a day also pass it, sometimes much more closely than either of the Qantas jets.
The official finger of suspicion has been pointed at the inertial air data reference units used in the A330. I think the heightened awareness of this problem among A330 pilots, and the specific bulletins and airworthiness directives that have been issued to all airlines using the type is a good reason not to be worried about flying in that jet.
The Exmouth issue is not resolved and could affect any fly by wire aircraft. The number of flights passing Exmouth is about 30 a day. (correct?) I am aware of only three incidents in the past 25 years.
I maintain my opinion, but the key issue is age and and airworthyness. Those old 338s were not up to it.
Bill
Bill
Marapana? That should be Marana.
http://www.airliners.net/search/photo.search?aircraft_genericsearch=&airlinesearch=&countrysearch=-+Marana+-+Pinal+Airpark
Bill
Bill, how can you say the 743’s where not up to it? The A330 clearly has a navigation problem, if a similiar accident happens twice in the space of a few months. The 743’s that were used for domestic flights (Qantas also used them for charter flights for school students) never had any problem whatsover. Airbus planes have a long history of poor workmanship, which I won’t go into.
Looser? As opposed to ‘tighter’?
And the delay wasn’t due to ATC, but because the crew decided to take on a bit of extra fuel due to the aircraft carrying cargo on the flight.
“Unsatisfactorily maintained”, or just old?
Goodbye and good riddance!
As a frequent Perth to Melbourne/Sydney flyer, I’m not sorry to see the last of these dirty and unreliable beasts!
I’m sure these planes will even find a way to be late when it comes time to decay!
They shouldn’t have threw it away. They could have sent it to Longreach and parked it next to the 742.
I’m a long-retired Q747 pilot. Spent 3 years based in London where we flew 3 routes:
– LHR to Bombay and back, working. Plus LHR to Bahrein & to Frankfurt. – We’d take
off our shoulder stripes, buy some duty-free at the megastore under the airport and
take whatever local Qantas staff could get us on, as 1st class passengers, back to
Heathrow.
-
Most were good and efficient. – But – One time, we found ourselves on a VERY early model Air India 747. [ The soap dishes in the toilets were carved hardwood ! -
-
Both Qantas and IA used Lufthansa as our local tech support.
-
Long delay on board. - Free drinks and snacks for 3 or 4 hours.
Turned out that Lufthansa had
GREAT problems finding a replacement part to fix the old IA 747. [ They finally
found a part from a German charter company that was still using old, similar
747's at Frankfurt. ]
-
Very tired, we finally got to LHR as passengers well after mid-day, instead of our more normal 0900.
—————————————————————————
NEXT ? – Ask me about deadheading into Rome after a long flight from the Middle East
on an ‘Italian International Airline. – I went forward from 1st Class to the toilet.
- The cockpit door was open. – Only the Captain on the flight deck. An open bottle of
wine on the floor and a glass in his hand. He saw me in my airline uniform without
shoulder stripes, raised his glass and said,
“Saluud “-
ENDS
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