Qantas bids farewell to Boeing 747, the ‘awesome big thing’

For staff at Qantas like Peter O’Donohue, the decision to bring forward the retirement of the Boeing 747 is the end of an era.

The last of the 747s in the Qantas fleet will be retired by the end of 2020.

For staff at Qantas like Peter O’Donohue, the decision to bring forward the retirement of the Boeing 747 from its fleet is the end of an era.

Now the head of the 787 program, he joined the flag carrier in 1979 and remembers the 747 as the “awesome big thing standing out there on the apron”.

The carrier still had some of the Boeing 707 aircraft but the 747 was “like every big kid’s dream, look out the window and see this big 747 standing there”.

“It’s part of the legacy and it’s been here so long,” O’Donohue says.

“I will be quite sad to see it go, even though it’s being replaced with growth and technology and the things that will take us forward. It’s that tie to the past that’s still here. We all grew up with it.”

O’Donohue is not alone, with Qantas’s annoucement sparking an outpouring on social media from people sad to see the end of an era that dates back to 1971, when the first Qantas 747 touched down in Sydney before starting regular services to Singapore.

The Qantas Founders Museum, whose collection at Longreach includes a 747, summed up the feelings of many on Twitter: “Over the past 98 years Qantas has seen many fleet changes. It is sad to see the end of the Boeing 747 era but exciting times ahead!”

Qantas received the last of its 747s, dubbed the “queen of the skies”, in 2003. There are still 10 of the 747-400s left in the fleet, which will all be retired by the end of 2020, probably going to a desert graveyard from where they tend to change hands to new owners.

The jumbo jet received particular attention in 1974, when Qantas set a world record for the most passengers when it evacuated 673 people from Darwin after Cyclone Tracy had torn through.

For Dublin-born Qantas boss Alan Joyce, the aircraft had “personal significance”.

“In the early 1990s, it was the first aircraft I took to come here to Australia,” Joyce said as he announced that Qantas had ordered an extra six Dreamliners, a move that will allow the last of the 747s to be retired more quickly.

Among the reasons the carrier is moving to the 787-9 is that the aircraft has much lower maintenance costs and is about 20 per cent more fuel-efficient than the 747.

O’Donohue says “the systems have come a huge way”, while heavy maintenance is needed less frequently on the 787: “The systems on board ... they don’t require as frequent maintenance.”