Ann Wason Moore opens up on Qantas long-haul flight from Los Angeles to Brisbane

From malfunctioning seats to prehistoric facilities, the ageing Qantas fleet is coming dangerously close to being a source of national shame.

It may still be one of the safest airlines in the world, but Qantas’ reputation is crashing across the globe.

In fact, the so-called ‘spirit of Australia’ was looking downright haunted on my long-haul flight last week from Los Angeles to Brisbane.

When we booked these flights last year, I was stunned to get a great return fare for our family of four on such a great airline. I’ll be honest, when it comes to holiday prices, I will happily fly Borat Airways if it means saving a buck.

But instead, I got what I paid for … an older plane with repairs needed to one of our seats, outdated USB charger tech and tape patching things up in the toilet. To be fair, the flight itself was safe and smooth and the staff were nothing but wonderful, but the hardware?

It had been through some hard wear indeed over the course of its dozen-plus years.

Qantas airbus a330 200 plane

To start with, one of our seats was broken. Seats which, I might add, we had to pay an extra $50 each in order to select and ensure our family was seated together – even though we were restricted to the very back of the plane. Such is the economy sale life, I suppose.

When a steward came to assess my daughter’s seat, accomplished by throwing his body violently backward while pressing that little silver button, he apologised and muttered it was time the plane was retired to the junk heap.

Those are not necessarily the words you want to hear right before takeoff, but fortunately I’m not a nervous flyer and I appreciated his sentiment in supporting the passengers.

I did think it was strange that the USB chargers (only the old-school fat ones were available) looked retrofitted – and, in fact, did not work at any of our seats – but I didn’t take too much notice since I was fully charged.

But then I saw the bathrooms. Reader, there were ashtrays.

Ashtrays in the hall and ashtrays in each bathroom. There were holes in the bathroom panelling patched up with masking tape. There were rips in the benchtop and taped-up tissue dispensers.

At this point, I was beginning to wonder if we’d been propelled down the runway Flintstones-styles, via the pilots’ feet.

Returning to my seat, I pulled out the safety manual to see just what kind of aircraft we were flying. The laminated card itself was peeling and covered in God knows what kind of sticky residue, turning it over to read the fine print, I half-expected to see hieroglyphics.

But no, it turned out we were flying in an Airbus 330-200, with my research showing ours was an almost 15-year-old plane … which explained a lot. What it did not explain, however, was why Qantas was still flying, to paraphrase Han Solo, this hunk of junk.

Certainly I was not the only passenger underwhelmed.

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Photos from columnist Ann Wason Moore's Qantas flight from Brisbane to America.

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Talk around the toilets during the breakfast rush was all about our collective surprise at the state of the flying kangaroo.

“They’re going to need to lift their game if they want to stay competitive, I don’t think I’d book this again,” one American passenger told me.

And, apparently, this is an old story. Literally.

In 2006, the average age of aircraft in the Qantas fleet was just eight years, but delayed purchases meant that by 2022, the fleet was older than its competitors, with an average age of 15 years. That means my flight, an aircraft born in 2010, was relatively young. Yikes.

This ageing fleet has caused a few safety concerns, although nothing to seriously damage the national carrier’s reputation. Yet.

Qantas announced last year that there were new craft on order, but by the time the replacement program starts in FY27, the average age of the A330 fleet will be 21 years.

That seems too little too late, and it’s sad to see not just the spirit, but what was once the pride, of Australia ageing so poorly.

While this city worries about what flights and routes that Qantas might bestow upon our gorgeous Gold Coast Airport – they have a history of doing a fly-by and bypassing us altogether – we should perhaps be more concerned with the future of our national carrier.

We can’t let it continue to crash and become our national shame.

Photos from columnist Ann Wason Moore's Qantas flight from Brisbane to America.