Qantas retires final plane in B747-300 fleet
20 Jan 2009 1:37 PM
SYDNEY, Jan 20 AAP - As Australia's last Qantas B747-300 departs for a plane graveyard in the United States it will mark an end of an era for the airline.
The first Qantas B747-300 entered service in 1984 with a further five aircraft delivered by 1987.
Between them the fleet clocked up more than 524,000 hours of flying time in more than two decades of operation.
The last commercial service was a Melbourne/Auckland/Los Angeles flight on December 29 last year.
The retirement of the fleet also means the end of another era - Qantas will no longer need to use flight engineers in any of its cockpits.
The last remaining serviceable Qantas B747-300 will depart Sydney at 7pm (AEDT) on Tuesday bound for the jet graveyard in Marana, Arizona, pending sale.
