About Qantas Boeing 747-400

The longest flight record

Qantas is flag carrier of Australia based in Sydney. They have 10 747-400s now.

Qantas had many classical 747s before they introduced 747-400s. In 1980s they had planned to make new routes with long distance. Qantas decided to order for 747-400 because 747-400 has the most long flight distance when they considered to order.

Qantas thought that the most important things is aircraft has long flight distance. And they wanted to long range type for 747-400. Boeing decided to launch for 747-400ER on November 28, 2000. Then Qantas ordered 6 747-400ER flowing on this time.

Qantas has retirement schedule of 747-400 series but They are planning to retirement for only normal type of 747-400. In 2018, Qantas has 4 747-400 and they will quite from fleet until 2019. 747-400ER is newer aircraft in their fleet and it will operating until when Qantas decide to new flag ship aircraft.

Qantas 747-400 History

March 2, 1987. Qantas ordered 4 747-400. Final order was in December 19, 2000 also this was ordering for 747-400ER. The final orders for normal type of 747-400 was in October 23, 1997. Qantas introduced total 28 747-400 until July 30, 2003. One of 747-400 (VH-OEB) was moved from Asiana Airlines on May 1998. And two of 747-400 (9M-MHN, 9M-MHO) moved from Malaysia Airlines on September 1998 also it was Malaysian configuration when it debuted in Qantas service.

Only one time Qantas leased one of 747-400 from British Airways on November 2000 and it operated until end of March 2003 because Qantas started introduce for 747-400ER after 2002.

Qantas has the longest flight record by 747-400 on August 16, 1989. It was 20 hour and 9 minutes flight from Sydney to London also it is the longest flight distance record (18,001km) at the moment.

Here is timetable about Qantas 747-400 history.

Current operations

Qantas International has 10 747-400s now.

There are two types 747-400 series in Qantas fleet. 4 of 747-400 and 6 of 747-400ER are the same operations and assignment to random destinations. Normally they are assignment to long haul routes. Main routes are North american, Asian, South Afirican. Past time they have some European routes (London, Frankfurt) via Asian cities but all of European routes are abolished until 2013.

Qantas 747-400 based 3 airports in Australia. Sydney has the largest base airport for 747-400. Brisbane and Melbourne have each only one route for North American.

In summer schedule of 2018, Qantas has 9 routes operated by 747-400 series. Here is all of routes list of Qantas 747-400.

• Sydney – San Francisco
• Sydney – Santiago
• Sydney – Johannesburg
• Sydney – Tokyo(Haneda)
• Sydney – Hong Kong
• Sydney – Los Angeles
• Sydney – Vancouver
• Brisbane – Los Angeles/New York(JFK)
• Melbourne – Hong Kong

Current aircraft

There is 10 747-400 in April 2018. Aircraft delivered before 1998 already retirement but VH-OEB moved from Asiana Airlines is still active in 2018. It was delivered on June 1993 and the oldest aircraft for Qantas fleet.

There are two types 747-400. Qantas has 4 normal 747-400s and 6 747-400ER. Almost aircraft have the same configuration both of 747-400 and 747-400ER. But VH-OEB has only aircraft with different configuration also it has 4 classes in the cabin (F14/C52/W32/Y255) include 14 first class. All of another 747-400s have 3 classes (C58/W32/Y270)

All of normal 747-400s will be retirement until end of 2018 or 2019 depending on 787-9 deliveries. VH-OEB is planning to retirement middle of 2018.

Boeing 747-400

Boeing 747-400ER

Tags: 747-400 GE Engines Qantas RR Engines