­It’s a superjumbo sayonara for Qantas as the 747 flies off

The retirement of Qantas 747s this month will close the chapter on a golden era of flying, says fleet captain Owen Weaver.

Captain Owen Weaver, at Sydney Airport, ahead of the retirement of the Qantas Boeing 747 fleet. Picture: John Feder

Qantas 747 fleet captain Owen Weaver can still recall the first time he saw the aeroplane dubbed the “Queen of the Skies” and is in no doubt he will remember the last.

As a boy growing up in the ­Adelaide Hills, he was inspired to become a pilot watching the ­majestic Boeing 747 fly over his home.

“It’s a very iconic shape with the upper deck bubble and I just have that vivid memory of it as a child,” he said.

“I was always amazed by it, and that really got me into flying. My first flight with Qantas was actually on a 747 as a second officer so I started my career with it and now have ended up at this point in my career with a 747 as well.”

Captain Weaver’s last flight on a 747 will be no less memorable as he joins the team taking the ­superjumbo from Sydney to California’s Mojave Desert.

The first Qantas Boeing 747, the ‘City of Canberra’.

Although Qantas always planned to farewell the airline’s five remaining 747s at the end of 2020, the COVID crisis has cruelly intervened to bring their retirement date forward.

With four engines and a ­capacity for 364 passengers, the 747-400s are simply too big and too fuel hungry for a travel-shy, post-COVID world.

“It’s very hard emotionally,” said Captain Weaver.

“We deliver an absolutely world-rate, first-class aircraft (to the desert) and we park it.

“That’s a very hard moment when we’ve spent our lives keeping (the 747) as a nice, comfortable, safe place that people want to be part of.”

The final flight on July 22 will follow a series of one-hour joy flights next week that sold out within 15 minutes of going on sale on Wednesday.

In a striking example of public affection for the aircraft, passengers paid between $400 and $747 for one of 540 seats on the flights out of Sydney, Canberra and ­Brisbane.

Captain Weaver said he believed the high regard for the aircraft stemmed from what it represented to many travellers, providing opportunities plenty had never had before.

“The 747 really brought flying to the working class. People could save up and go and see their aunty in Italy or their mother in Greece or the family back in England or around Asia — it really is the aircraft that enabled that,” he said.

“It is the one aircraft that will always be associated with that.

“This is its 50th year of flying, and when you look back over those 50 years, that was the time aviation crossed that boundary.”

Qantas placed its first order for the Boeing 747 in 1967, and began flying the aircraft in 1971.

There was even a period when Qantas operated an all-747 fleet, from 1978 until 1985 when the first 767s came into service.

In something of a happy ending for the 747s, Captain Weaver said the desert would not be their final resting place.

“The final aircraft have been sold and that backs up our decision (to retire them),” he said.

“It’s unfortunate for us but there’s a new world opening up.”