Qantas brings forward last Boeing 747 flight

After nearly 50 years in service, Qantas is giving passengers one last chance to experience the ‘Queen of the Skies’ before it heads off to the desert for good.

First designed in the 1960s, the Boeing 747 is coming to the end of its service life for many airlines. Picture: Che Chorley

Qantas is set to bestow the sort of farewell normally afforded to retiring rock stars on its own Queen of the Skies, the Boeing 747-400.

As a result of the COVID-19 crisis, plans to retire the iconic double-decker jets have been brought forward six months, with the last of the airline’s 747s heading off to California’s Mojave Desert on July 22.

With four engines and seating for 364 passengers, the 747s have become too big and too inefficient for the much leaner post-COVID airline industry, and Qantas can’t see a use for them in the second half of the year.

But they will not go quietly, with Qantas scheduling a series of farewell “joy flights” in Sydney on July 13, Brisbane on July 15 and Canberra on July 17, in response to overwhelming demand.

Travellers will be able to pay for a seat on the one-hour flights, with bookings expected to open on Tuesday, July 7.

An economy seat will cost $400 and a seat in business $747.

The premium economy cabin will be set aside for employees who can enter a draw for a chance to take part in the flights.

Any profits from the flights will be donated to charity.

The farewell flights will signal the end of an era for Qantas which placed its first order for the Boeing 747 in 1967 and began operating the aircraft in 1971.

Qantas staff member Jenny Colley in the upper deck lounge of the then-new Boeing 747 in 1971.

In the years that followed, Qantas flew almost every variant of the 747, including the 747-300, which introduced the extended upper deck, the 747-400 and 747-400ER (extended range). There was even a period when Qantas operated an all-747 fleet, from 1978 until 1985 when the first 767s came into service.

Overall, Qantas has operated 65 747s in the past 49 years, and used the aircraft on its recent “rescue” flights including two services from Wuhan in China.

There is also speculation the Airbus A380 could be soon to follow the 747s, with Qantas putting its fleet of 12 superjumbos into storage in the Mojave Desert for at least three years.